
A BOY OF 
G ALILEE 




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JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Works of 


Annie Fellows Johnston 



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THEN TAKE YOURSELF OUT OF MY SIGHT FOR EVER ’ ” 

(See page 96 ) 










NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION 


T T7T . A BOY OF 

J W H A-J ! GALILEE 


B y 

ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON 

Author of “ The Little Colonel Series,” “ Big Brother,” 
“ Ole Mammy’s Torment,” “ Asa Holmes,” etc. 


With Pictures by L. J. BRIDGMAN 



BOSTON 

L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 

1904 


















LIBRARY Of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

JUN 22 1904 

tl Coo.vrljrht entry 

mjLUL 11 -faff lh 

GLASS A.XXo. No. 

% 0 ! I S) 

I COPY B 


3^r 


Copyright , 1895 

By Roberts Brothers 


Copyright, 1904 

By L. C. Page & Company 

(incorporated) 


All rights reserved 












PUBLISHER’S PREFACE 


In this volume, it has been the purpose of the 
author to present to children, through “ Joel,” as accu¬ 
rate a picture of the times of the Christ as has been 
given to older readers through “ Ben Hur.” With 
this in view, the customs of the private and public 
life of the Jews, the temple service with its sacerdotal 
rites, and the minute observances of the numerous 
holidays have been studied so carefully that the de¬ 
scriptions have passed the test of the most critical 
inspection. An eminent rabbi pronounces them cor¬ 
rect in every detail. 

While the story is that of an ordinary boy, living 
among shepherds and fishermen, it touches at every 
point the gospel narrative, making Joel, in a natural 
and interesting way, a witness to the miracles, the 
death, and the resurrection of the Nazarene. 

It was with the deepest reverence that the task was 
undertaken, and the fact that the little book is ac¬ 
complishing its mission is evinced not only by the 
approval accorded its first editions by so many, from 
Bible students to bishops, but by the boys and girls 
here and in distant lands. 




A 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

“ ‘ Then take yourself out of my sight for 

ever ’ ” {See page q6) .... Frontispiece 

“ He looked down at Phineas, and smiled 

BLISSFULLY ”. 

“‘I PEEPED OUT ’TWEEN ’E WOSE-VINES’” 

“ Not a word was said ”. 

“ ‘ We TALKED LATE ’”. 

“ ‘ You BUT MOCK ME, BOY ’ ”. 

“ A DARK FIGURE WENT SKULKING OUT INTO THE 

NIGHT ”.203 

“‘The stone is gone!’”.233'' 


34 ' 
82 ^ 
104 / 

139 

184 











4 








' *v 






























* 








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JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


CHAPTER I. 

T was market day in Capernaum. 
Country people were coming in from 
the little villages among the hills of 
Galilee, with fresh butter and eggs. 
Fishermen held out great strings of shining 
perch and carp, just dipped up from the lake be¬ 
side the town. Vine-dressers piled their baskets 
with tempting grapes, and boys lazily brushed 
the flies from the dishes of wild honey, that they 
had gone into the country before day-break to 
find. 

A ten-year-old girl pushed her way through 
the crowded market-place, carrying her baby 
brother in her arms, and scolding another child, 
who clung to her skirts. 

“ Hurry, you little snail! ” she said to him. 
“ There’s a camel caravan just stopped by the 
custom-house. Make haste, if you want to see 
it! * 



1 




2 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Their bare feet picked their way quickly 
over the stones, down to the hot sand of the 
lake shore. The children crept close to the 
shaggy camels, curious to see what they car¬ 
ried in their huge packs. But before they were 
made to kneel, so that the custom-house officials 
could examine the loads, the boy gave an ex¬ 
clamation of surprise. 

u Look, Jerusha! Look!” he cried, tugging 
at her skirts.’ “ What’s that ? ” 

Farther down the line, came several men 
carrying litters. On each one was a man badly 
wounded, judging by the many bandages that 
wrapped him. 

Jerusha pushed ahead to hear what had hap¬ 
pened. One of the drivers was telling a tax- 
gatherer. 

“ In that last rocky gorge after leaving 
Samaria,” said the man, “ we were set upon by 
robbers. They swarmed down the cliffs, and 
fought as fiercely as eagles. These men, who 
were going on ahead, had much gold with them. 
They lost it all, and might have been killed, if 
we had not come up behind in such numbers. 
That poor fellow there can hardly live, I think, 
he was beaten so badly.” 

The children edged up closer to the motion- 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


3 


less form on the litter. It was badly bruised and 
blood-stained, and looked already lifeless. 

“ Let’s go, Jerusha,” whispered the boy, 
whimpering and pulling at her hand. “ I don’t 
like to look at him.” 

With the heavy baby still in her arms, and 
the other child tagging after, she started slowly 
back towards the market-place. 

“ I ’ll tell you what we ’ll do,” she exclaimed. 
“ Let’s go up and get the other children, and 
play robbers. We never did do that before. It 
will be lots of fun.” 

There was a cry of welcome as Jerusha ap¬ 
peared again in the market-place, where a crowd 
of children were playing tag, regardless of the 
men and beasts they bumped against. They 
were all younger than herself, and did not resent 
her important air when she called, “ Come here ! 
I know a better game than that! ” 

She told them what she had just seen and 
heard down at the beach, and drew such a vivid 
picture of the attack, that the children were 
ready for anything she might propose. 

“ Now we ’ll choose sides,” she said. “ I ’ll be 
a rich merchant coming up from Jerusalem with 
my family and servants, and the rest of you can 
be robbers. We ’ll go along with our goods, and 


4 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


you pounce out on us as we go by. You may 
take the baby as a prisoner if you like,” she 
added, with a mischievous grin. u I ’m tired of 
carrying him.” 

A boy sitting near by on a door-step, jumped 
up eagerly. “ Let me play, too, Jerusha ! ” he 
cried. “ I ’ll be one of the robbers. I know 
just the best places to hide ! ” 

The girl paused an instant in her choosing to 
say impatiently, although not meaning to be un¬ 
kind, “ Oh, no, Joel! We do not want you. 
You’re too lame to run. You can’t play with 
us!” 

The bright, eager look died out of the boy’s 
face, and an angry light shone in his eyes. He 
pressed his lips together hard, and sat down 
again on the step. 

There was a patter of many bare feet as the 
children raced away. Their voices sounded 
fainter and fainter, till they were lost entirely 
in the noise of the busy street. 

Usually, Joel found plenty to amuse and inter¬ 
est him here. He liked to watch the sleepy 
donkeys with their loads of fresh fruit and vege¬ 
tables. He liked to listen to the men as they 
cried their wares, or chatted over the bargains 
with their customers. There was always some- 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 5 

thing new to be seen in the stalls and booths. 
There was always something new to be heard in 
the scraps of conversation that came to him 
where he sat. 

Down this street there sometimes came long 
caravans; for this was “ the highway to the 
sea/’—the road that led from Egypt to Syria. 
Strange, dusky faces sometimes passed this way; 
richly dressed merchant princes with their price¬ 
less stuffs from beyond the Nile; heavy loads 
of Babylonian carpets; pearls from Ceylon, 
and rich silks for the court of the wicked Hero- 
dias, in the town beyond. Fisherman and sailor, 
rabbi and busy workman passed in an endless 
procession. 

Sometimes a Roman soldier from the garrison 
came by with ringing step and clanking sword. 
Then Joel would start up to look after the erect 
figure, with a longing gaze that told more plainly 
than words, his admiration of such strength and 
symmetry. 

But this morning the crowd gave him a 
strange, lonely feeling, — a hungry longing for 
companionship. 

Two half-grown boys passed by on their way 
to the lake, with fish nets slung over their 
shoulders. He knew the larger one, — a rough, 


6 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


kind-hearted fellow who had once taken him in 
his boat across the lake. He gave Joel a care¬ 
less, good-natured nod as he passed. A moment 
after he felt a timid pull at the fish net he was 
carrying, and turned to see the little cripple’s 
appealing face. 

“ Oh, Dan 1” he cried eagerly. “ Are you go¬ 
ing out on the lake this morning ? Could you 
take me with you ?” 

The boy hesitated. Whatever kindly answer 
he may have given, was rudely interrupted by 
his companion, whom Joel had never seen before. 

“ Oh, no ! ” he said roughly. “ We don’t want 
anybody limping along after us. You can’t 
come, Jonah ; you would bring us bad luck.” 

“ My name is n’t Jonah ! ” screamed the boy, 
angrily clinching his fists. “ It’s Joel! ” 

“ Well, it is all the same,” his tormentor called 
back, with a coarse laugh. “ You ’re a Jonah, 
any way.” 

There were tears in the boy’s eyes this time, 
as he dragged himself back again to the step. 

“ I hate everybody in the world ! ” he said in 
a hissing sort of whisper. “ I hate’m! I 
hate’m ! ” 

A stranger passing by turned for a second look 
at the little cripple’s sensitive, refined face. A 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 7 

girlishly beautiful face it would have been, were 
it not for the heavy scowl that darkened it. 

Joel pulled the ends of his head-dress round to 
hide his crooked back, and drew the loose robe 
he wore over his twisted leg. 

Life seemed very bitter to him just then. He 
would gladly have changed places with the 
heavily laden donkey going by. 

“ I wish I were dead,” he thought moodily. 
" Then I would not ache any more, and I could 
not hear when people call me names ! ” 

Beside the door where he sat was a stand 
where tools and hardware were offered for sale. 
A man who had been standing there for some 
time, selecting nails from the boxes placed be¬ 
fore him, and had heard all that passed, spoke to 
him. 

"Joel, my lad, may I ask your help for a 
little while ? ” The friendly question seemed to 
change the whole atmosphere. 

Joel drew his hands across his eyes to clear 
them of the blur of tears he was too proud to 
let fall, and then stood up respectfully. “ Yes, 
Kabbi Phineas, what would you have me to do ? ” 

The carpenter gathered up some strips of 
lumber in one hand, and his hammer and saws 
in the other. 


8 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ I have my hands too full to carry these 
nails,” he answered. “ If you could bring them 
for me, it would be a great service.” 

If the man had offered him pity, Joel would 
have fiercely resented it. His sensitive nature 
appreciated the unspoken sympathy, the fine tact 
that soothed his pride by asking a service of him, 
instead of seeking to render one. 

He could not define the feeling, but he grate¬ 
fully took up the bag of nails, and limped along 
beside his friend to the carpenter’s house at the 
edge of the town. He had never been there 
before, although he met the man daily in the 
market-place, and long ago had learned to look 
forward to his pleasant greeting; it was so differ¬ 
ent from most people’s. Somehow the morning 
always seemed brighter after he had met him. 

The little whitewashed house stood in the 
shade of two great fig : trees near the beach. A 
cool breeze from the Galilee lifted the leaves, and 
swayed the vines growing around the low door. 

Joel, tired by the long walk, was glad to throw' 
himself on the grass in the shade. It was so still 
and quiet here, after the noise of the street he 
had just left. 

An old hen clucked around the door-step with 
a brood of downy, yellow chickens. Doves cooed 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


9 


softly, somewhere out of sight. The carpenter’s 
bench stood under one of the trees, with shavings 
and chips all around it. Two children were play¬ 
ing near it, building houses of the scattered 
blocks; one of them, a black-eyed, sturdy boy 
of five, kept on playing. The other, a little 
girl, not yet three, jumped up and followed her 
father into the house. Her curls gleamed like 
gold as she ran through the sunshine. She 
glanced at the stranger with deep-blue eyes so 
like her father’s that Joel held out his hand. 

“ Come and tell me your name,” he said coax- 
ingly. But she only shook the curls all over 
her dimpled face, and hurried into the house. 

“ It’s Ruth,” said the boy, deigning to look up. 
“ And mine is Jesse, and my mother’s is Abigail, 
and my father’s is Phineas, and my grand-father’s 
is — ” 

How far back he would have gone in his 
genealogy, Joel could not guess; for just then 
his father came out with a cool, juicy melon, 
and Jesse hurried forward to get his share. 

“How good it is!” sighed Joel, as the first 
refreshing mouthful slipped down his thirsty 
throat. “ And how cool and pleasant it is out 
here. I did not know there was such a peaceful 
spot in all Capernaum.” 


10 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Did n’t you always live here ? ” asked the in¬ 
quisitive Jesse. 

“ No, I was born in Jerusalem. I was to have 
been a priest/’ he said sadly. 

“ Well, why didn’t you be one then,” per¬ 
sisted the child, with his mouth full of melon. 

Joel glanced down at his twisted leg, and said 
nothing. 

“ Why ? ” repeated the boy. 

Phineas, who had gone back to his work-bench, 
looked up kindly. “ You ask too many questions, 
my son. No one can be a priest who is maimed 
or blemished in any way. Some sad accident 
must have befallen our little friend, and it may 
be painful for him to talk about it.” 

Jesse asked no more questions with his tongue; 
but his sharp, black eyes were fixed on Joel like 
two interrogation points. 

“ I do not mind telling about it,” said Joel, 
sitting up straighter. “ Once when I was not 
much older than you, just after my mother 
died, my father brought me up to this country 
from Jerusalem, to visit my Aunt Leah. 

“ I used to play down here by the lake, with my 
cousins, in the fishermen’s boats. There was a 
boy that came to the beach sometimes, a great 
deal larger than I, — a dog of a Samaritan, — who 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


11 


pulled my hair and threw sand in my eyes. He 
was so much stronger than I, that I could not do 
anything to him but call him names. But early 
one morning he was swimming in the lake. I hid 
his clothes in the oleander bushes that fringe the 
water. Oh, but he was angry ! I wanted him to 
be. But I had to keep away from the lake after 
that. 

“ One day some older children took me to the 
hills back of the town to gather almonds. This 
Rehum followed us. I had strayed away from the 
others a little distance, and was stooping to put 
the nuts in my basket, when he slipped up behind 
me. How he beat me! I screamed so that the 
other children came running back to me. When 
he saw them coming, he gave me a great push 
that sent me rolling over a rocky bank. It was 
not very high, but there were sharp stones below. 

“ They thought I was dead when they picked me 
up. It was months before I could walk at all; 
and I can never be an any better than I am now. 
Just as my father was about to take me back to 
Jerusalem, he took a sudden fever, and died. So 
I was left, a poor helpless burden for my aunt to 
take care of. It has been six years since then/’ 

Joel threwhimself full length on the grass, and 
scowled up at the sky. 


12 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Where is that boy that hurt you,” asked 
Jesse. 

“ Rehum ? ” questioned Joel. “ I wish I knew,” 
he muttered fiercely. “ Oh, how I hate him! I 
can never be a priest as my father intended. I 
can never serve in the beautiful temple with the 
white pillars and golden gates. I can never be 
like other people, but must drag along, deformed 
and full of pain as long as I live. And it’s all 
his fault! ” 

A sudden gleam lit up the boy’s eyes, as light¬ 
ning darts through a storm-cloud. 

“ But I shall have my revenge! ” he added, 
clinching his fists. “ I cannot die till I have 
made him feel at least a tithe of what I have 
suffered. ‘ An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 
tooth! ’ That is the least that can satisfy me. 
Oh, you cannot know how I long for that time ! 
Often I lie awake late into the night, planning 
my revenge. Then I forget how my back hurts 
and my leg pains; then I forget all the names 
I have been called, and the taunts that make my 
life a burden. But they all come back with the 
daylight; and I store them up and add them to 
his account. For everything he has made me 
suffer, I swear he shall pay for it four-fold in his 
own sufferings! ” 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


13 


Ruth shrank away, frightened by the wild, im¬ 
passioned boy who sat up, angrily staring in 
front of him with eyes that saw nothing of 
the sweet, green-clad world around him. The 
face of his enemy blotted out all the sunny land¬ 
scape. One murderous purpose filled him, mind 
and soul. 

Nothing was said for a little while. The doves 
as before cooed of peace, and Phineas began a 
steady tap-tap with his hammer. 

A pleasant-faced woman came out of the door 
with a water-jar on her head, and passed down 
the path to the public well. She gave Joel a 
friendly greeting in passing. 

u Wait, mother ! ’’ lisped Ruth, as she ran after 
her. The woman turned to smile at the little 
one, and held out her hand. Her dress, of some 
soft, cotton material, hung in long flowing folds. 
It was a rich blue color, caught at the waist with 
a white girdle. The turban wound around her 
dark hair was white also, and so was the veil she 
pushed aside far enough to show a glimpse of 
brown eyes and red cheeks. She wore a broad 
silver bracelet on the bare arm which was raised 
to hold the water-jar, and the rings in her ears 
and talismans on her neck were of quaintly 
wrought silver. 


14 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“I did not know it was so late/’ said Joel, ris~ 
ing to his feet. “ Time passes so fast here.” 

“ Nay, do not go,” said Phineas. “ It is a 
long walk back to your home, and the sun is 
very hot. Stay and eat dinner with us.” 

Joel hesitated; but the invitation was repeated 
so cordially, that he let Jesse pull him down on 
the grass again. 

“ Now I ’ll tickle your lips with this blade of 
grass,” said the child. “ See how long you can 
keep from laughing.” 

When Abigail came back with the water, both 
the boys were laughing as heartily as if there had 
never been an ache or pain in the world. She 
smiled at them approvingly, as she led the way 
into the house. 

Joel looked around with much curiosity. It 
was like most of the other houses of its kind 
in the town. There was only one large square 
room, in which the family cooked, ate, and slept; 
but on every side it showed that Phineas had 
left traces of his skilful hands. 

There was a tiny window cut in one wall; 
most of the houses of this description had none, 
but depended on the doorway for light and air. 
Several shelves around the walls held the lamp 
and the earthenware dishes. The chest made 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


15 


to hold the rugs and cushions which they spread 
down at night to sleep on, was unusually large 
and ornamental. A broom, a handmill, and a 
bushel stood in one corner. 

Near the door, a table which Phineas had made, 
stood spread for the mid-day meal. 

There was broiled fish on one of the platters, 
beans and barley bread, a dish of honey, and a 
pitcher of milk. The fare was just the same that 
Joel was accustomed to in his uncle’s house; but 
something made the simple meal seem like a 
banquet. It may have been that the long walk 
had made him hungrier than usual, or it may have 
been because he was treated as the honored guest, 
instead of a child tolerated through charity. 

He watched his host carefully, as he poured 
the water over his hands before eating, and 
asked a blessing on the food. 

“ He does not keep the law as strictly as my 
Uncle Laban,” was his inward comment. “ He 
asked only one blessing, and Uncle Laban blesses 
every kind of food separately. But he must be 
a good man, even if he is not so strict a Pharisee 
as my uncle, for he is kinder than any one I ever 
knew before.” 

It was wonderful how much Joel had learned, 
in his eleven short years, of the Law. His aunt’s 


16 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


husband had grown to manhood in Jerusalem, 
and, unlike the simple Galileans among whom he 
now lived, tried to observe its most detailed rules. 

The child heard them discussed continually, 
till he felt he could neither eat, drink, nor dress, 
except by these set rules. He could not play 
like other children, and being so much with 
older people had made him thoughtful and 
observant. 

He had learned to read very early; and hour 
after hour he spent in the house of Rabbi 
Amos, the most learned man of the town, por¬ 
ing over his rolls of scriptures. Think of a 
childhood without a picture, or a story-book! 
All that there was to read were these old 
records of Jewish history. 

The old man had taken a fancy to him, finding 
him an appreciative listener and an apt pupil. 
So Joel was allowed to come whenever he 
pleased, and take out the yellow rolls of parch¬ 
ment from their velvet covers. 

He was never perfectly happy except at these 
times, when he was reading these old histories of 
his country’s greatness. How he enjoyed chas¬ 
ing the armies of the Philistines, and fighting 
over again the battles of Israel’s kings ! Many 
a tale he stored away in his busy brain to be 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 17 

repeated to the children gathered around the 
public fountain in the cool of the evening. 

It mattered not what character he told them 
of, — priest or prophet, judge or king, — the 
picture was painted in life-like colors by this 
patriotic little hero-worshipper. 

Here and at home he heard so many discus¬ 
sions about what was lawful and what was not, 
that he was constantly in fear of breaking one of 
the many rules, even in as simple a duty as 
washing a cup. 

So he watched his host closely till the meal 
was over, finding that in the observance of many 
customs, he failed to measure up to his uncle’s 
strict standard. 

Phineas went back to his work after dinner. 
He was greatly interested in Joel, and, while he 
sawed and hammered, kept a watchful eye on 
him. Pie was surprised at the boy’s knowledge. 
More than once he caught himself standing with 
an idle tool in hand, as he listened to some story 
that Joel was telling to Jesse. 

After a while he laid down his work and leaned 
against the bench. “ What do you find to do all 
day, my lad ? ” he asked, abruptly. 

“ Nothing,” answered Joel, “ after I have re¬ 
cited my lessons to Rabbi Amos.” 

2 


18 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Does your aunt never give you any tasks to 
do at home ? ” 

“ No. I think she does not like to have me in 
her sight any more than she is obliged to. She 
is always kind to me, but she does n’t love me. 
She only pities me. I hate to be pitied. There 
is not a single one in the world who really loves 
me.” 

His lips quivered, but he winked back the 
tears. Phineas seemed lost in thought a few 
minutes; then he looked up. “ You are a 
Levite,” he said slowly, “ so of course you could 
always be supported without needing to learn a 
trade. Still you would be a great deal happier, 
in my opinion, if you had something to keep you 
busy. If you like, I will teach you to be a car¬ 
penter. There are a great many things you 
might learn to make well, and, by and by, it 
would be a source of profit to you. There is no 
bread so bitter as the bread of dependence, as 
you may learn when you are older.” 

“ Oh, Rabbi Phineas ! ” cried Joel. “ Do you 
mean that I may come here every day ? It is 
too good to be true! ” 

“ Yes ; if you will promise to stick to it until 
you have mastered the trade. If you are as 
quick to learn with your hands as you have been 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


19 


with your head, I shall have reason to be proud 
of such a pupil.” 

Joel’s face flushed with pleasure, and he sprang 
up quickly, saying, “ May I begin right now ? 
Oh, I ’ll try so hard to please you ! ” 

Phineas laid a soft pine board on the bench, 
and began to mark a line across it with a piece 
of red chalk. 

“ Well, you may see how straight a cut you 
can make through this plank.” 

He picked up a saw, and ran his fingers 
lightly along its sharp teeth. But he paused in 
the act of handing it to Joel, to ask, “ You are 
sure, now, that your uncle and aunt will consent 
to such an arrangement ? ” 

“ Yes indeed! ” was the emphatic answer. 
“ They will be glad enough to have me out of 
the way, and learning something useful.” 

The saw cut slowly through the wood ; for the 
weak little hand was a careful one, and the boy 
was determined not to swerve once from the 
line. He smiled with satisfaction as the pieces 
fell apart, showing a clean, straight edge. 

“Well done!” said Phineas, kindly. “Now 
let me see you drive a nail.” Made bold by his 
first success, Joel pounded away vigorously, but 
the hammer slipped more than once, and his un- 


20 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


practised fingers ached with the blows that he 
had aimed at the nail’s head. 

“ You ’ll soon learn,” said Phineas, with an 
encouraging pat on the boy’s shoulder. “ Gather 
up those odds and ends under the bench. When 
you’ve sawed them into equal lengths, I ’ll show 
you how to make a box.” 

Joel bent over his work with almost painful 
intensity. He fairly held his breath, as he made 
the measurements. He gripped the saw as if 
his life depended on the strength of his hold. 
Phineas smiled at his earnestness. 

“ Be careful, my lad,” he said. . “ You will 
soon w r ear out at that rate.” 

It seemed to Joel that there never had been 
such a short afternoon. He had stopped to rest 
several times, when Phineas had insisted upon it; 
but this new work had all the fascination of an 
interesting game. The trees threw giant shadows 
across the grass, when he finally laid his tools 
aside. His back ached with so much unusual 
exercise, and he was very tired. 

“ Rabbi Phineas,” he asked gently, after a long 
pause, “ what makes you so good to me ? What 
makes you so different from other people ? 
While I am with you, I feel like I want to be 
good. Other people seem to rub me the wrong 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


21 


way, and make me cross and hateful; then I 
feel like I’d rather be wicked than not. Why 
this afternoon, I’ve scarcely thought of Rehum 
at all. I forgot at times that I am lame. When 
you talk to me, I feel like I did that day Dan 
took me out on the lake. It seemed a different 
kind of a world, — all blue sky and smooth 
water. I felt if I could stay out there all the 
time, where it was so quiet and comforting, 
that I could not even hate Rehum as much as 
I do.” 

A surprised, pleased look passed over the 
man’s face. “Do I really make you feel that 
way, little one ? Then I am indeed glad. Once 
when I was a young boy living in Nazareth, I 
had a playmate who had that influence over me 
and all the boys he played with. I never could 
be selfish and impatient when he was with me. 
His very presence rebuked such thoughts, — 
when we were children playing together, like 
my own two little ones there, and when we 
were older grown, working at the same bench. 
It has been many a long year since I left Naza¬ 
reth, but I think of him daily. Even now, after 
our long separation, the thought of his blameless 
life inspires me to a higher living. Yes,” he 
went on musingly, more to himself than the boy, 


22 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ it was like music. Surely no white-robed 
priest in the holy temple ever offered up more 
acceptable praise than the perfect harmony of 
his daily life.” 

Joel’s lips trembled. “ If I had ever had one 
real friend to care for me—not just pity me, 
you know — maybe I would have been different. 
But I have never had a single one since my 
father died.” 

Phineas smiled, and held out his hand. “ You 
have one now, my lad, never forget that.” 

The strong brown hand closed in a warm 
grasp, and Joel drew it, with a grateful impulse, 
to his lips. Kuth came up with wondering eyes. 
She could not understand what had passed ; but 
Joel’s eyes were full of tears, and she vaguely 
felt that he needed comfort. She had a pet 
pigeon in her arms, that she carried everywhere 
with her. 

“Here,” she lisped, holding out the snowy 
winged bird. “ Boy, take it! Boy, keep it! ” 

Joel looked up inquiringly at Phineas. “ Take 
it,” he said, in a low tone. “ Let it be the omen 
of a happier life commencing for you.” 

“I never had a pet of any kind before,” said 
Joel, in delight, smoothing the white wings 
folded contentedly against his breast. “ But she 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


23 


loves it so, I dislike to take it from her. How 
beautiful it is ! 

“ My little Ruth is a born comforter/’ said 
Phineas, tossing her up in his arms. “ Shall 
Joel take the pigeon home with him, little 
daughter ? ” 

“ Yes,” she answered, nodding her head. 
61 Boy cried.” 

“ I ’ll name it ‘ Little Friend,’ ” said Joel, 
rising with it in his arms. “ I ’ll take it home 
with me, and keep it until after the Sabbath, to 
make me feel sure that this day has not been 
just a dream; but I will bring it back next time 
I come. I can see it here every day, and it will 
be happier here. Oh, Rabbi Phineas, I can never 
thank you enough for this day ! ” 

It was a pitiful little figure that limped away 
homeward in the fading light, with the white 
pigeon in his arms. 

Looking anxiously up in the sky, Joel saw one 
star come twinkling out. The Sabbath would 
soon begin, and then he must not be found carry¬ 
ing even so much as this one poor little pigeon. 
The slightest burden would be unlawful. 

As he hurried on, the loud blast of a trumpet, 
blown from the roof of the synagogue, signalled 
the laborers in the fields to stop all work. He 


24 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


knew that very soon it would sound again, to 
call the town people from their tasks; and at the 
third blast, the Sabbath lamp would be lighted 
in every home. 

Fearful of his uncle’s displeasure at his 
tardiness, he hurried painfully onward, to pro¬ 
vide food and a resting-place for his “ little 
friend ” before the second sounding of the 
trumpet. 


CHAPTER II. 


ARLY in the morning after the Sab¬ 
bath, Joel was in his accustomed 
place in the market, waiting for his 
friend Phineas. His uncle had given 
a gruff assent, when he timidly asked his approval 
of the plan. 

The good Rabbi Amos was much pleased when 
he heard of the arrangement. “ Thou hast been 
a faithful student/’ he said, kindly. “ Thou know- 
est already more of the Law than many of thy 
elders. Now it will do thee good to learn the 
handicraft of Phineas. Remember, my son, ‘ the 
balm was created by God before the wound.’ 
Work, that is as old as Eden, has been given 
us that we might forget the afflictions of this 
life that fleeth like a shadow. May the God 
of thy fathers give thee peace! ” 

With the old man’s benediction repeating 
itself like a solemn refrain in all his thoughts, 
Joel stood smoothing the pigeon in his arms, 
until Phineas had made his daily purchases. 





26 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Then they walked on together in the cool of 
the morning, to the little white house under 
the fig-trees. Phineas was surprised at his 
pupil's progress. To be sure, the weak arms 
could lift little, the slender hands could attempt 
no large tasks. But the painstaking care he 
bestowed on everything he attempted, resulted 
in beautifully finished work. If there was an 
extra smooth polish to be put on some w r ood, 
or a delicate piece of joining to do, Joel's deft 
fingers seemed exactly suited to the task. 

Before the winter was over, he had made 
many pretty little articles of furniture for Abi¬ 
gail’s use. . 

“ May I have these pieces of fine wood to use 
as I please ? " he asked of Phineas, one day. 

“All but that largest strip," he answered. 
“ What are you going to make ? " 

“ Something for Ruth’s birthday. She will be 
three years old in a few weeks, Jesse says, and I 
want to make something for her to play w r ith." 

“ What are you going to make her? ’’ inquired 
Jesse, from under the work-bench. “ Let me see 
too." 

“ Oh, I did n’t know you were anywhere near," 
answered Joel, with a start of alarm. 

“ Tell me ! " begged Jesse. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


27 


“ Well, if you will promise to keep her out of 
the way while I am finishing it, and never say a 
word about it — ” 

“ I ’ll promise/’ said the child, solemnly. He 
had to clap his hand over his mouth a great 
many times in the next few weeks, to keep his 
secret from telling itself, and he watched ad¬ 
miringly while Joel carved and polished and cut. 

One of the neighbors had come in to talk with 
Abigail the day he finished it, and as the children 
were down on the beach, playing in the sand, he 
took it in the house to show to the women. It 
was a little table set with toy dishes, that he had 
carved out of wood, — plates and cups and platters, 
all complete. 

The visitor held up her hands with an exclama¬ 
tion of delight. After taking up each little highly 
polished dish to admire it separately, she said,“ I 
know where you might get a great deal of money 
for such work. There is a rich Roman living near 
the garrison, who spends money like a lord. No 
price is too great for him to pay for anything that 
pleases his fancy. Why don’t you take some up 
there, and offer them for sale ? ” 

“ I believe I will,” said Joel, after considering 
the matter. “ I ’ll go just as soon as I can get 
them made.” 


28 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Ruth spread many a little feast under the fig- 
trees; but after the first birthday banquet, Jesse 
was her only guest. Joel was too busy making 
more dishes and another little table, to partake 
of them. 

The whole family were interested in his success. 
The day he went up to the great house near the 
garrison to offer them for sale, they waited 
anxiously for his return. 

“ He’s sold them! He ’s sold them ! ” cried 
Jesse, hopping from one foot to the other, as 
he saw Joel coming down the street empty- 
handed. Joel was hobbling along as fast as he 
could, his face beaming. 

“ See how much money! ” he cried, as he 
opened his hand to show a shining coin, 
stamped with the head of Cmsar. “ And I 
have an order for two more. I ’ll soon have 
a fortune ! The children liked the dishes so 
much, although they had the most beautiful 
toys I ever saw. They had images they called 
dolls. Some of them had white-kid faces, and 
were dressed as richly as queens. I wish Ruth 
had one.” 

“ The law forbids! ” exclaimed Phineas. “ Have 
you forgotten that it is written, ‘ Thou shalt not 
make any likeness of anything in the heavens 


JOEL .* A BOY OF GALILEE. 29 

above or the earth beneath, or the waters under 
the earth ’ ? She is happy with what she has, 
and needs no strange idols of the heathen to play 
with.” 

Joel made no answer; but he thought of the 
merry group of Roman children seated around the 
little table he had made, and wished again that 
Ruth had one of those gorgeously dressed dolls. 

Skill and strength were not all he gained by his 
winter’s work; for some of the broad charity that 
made continual summer in the heart of Phineas 
crept into his own embittered nature. He grew 
less suspicious of those around him, and smiles 
came more easily now to his face than scowls. 

But the strong ambition of his life never left 
him for an instant. To all the rest of the world 
he might be a friend; to Rehum he could only 
be the most unforgiving of enemies. 

The thought that had given him most pleasure 
when the wealthy Roman had tossed him his first 
earnings, was not that his work could bring him 
money, but that the money could open the way 
for his revenge. 

That thought, like a dark undercurrent, gained 
depth and force as the days went by. As he saw 
how much he could do in spite of his lameness, 
he thought of how much more he might have 


30 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


accomplished, if he had been like other boys. It 
was a constant spur to his desire for revenge. 

One day Phineas laid aside his tools much 
earlier than usual, and without any explanation to 
his wondering pupil, went up into the town. 

When he returned, he nodded to his wife, who 
sat in the doorway spinning, and who had looked 
up inquiringly as he approached. 

“ Yes, it’s all arranged,” he said to her. Then 
he turned to Joel to ask, “ Did you ever ride on a 
camel, my boy ?” 

“ No, Rabbi, ” answered the boy, in surprise, 
wondering what was coming next. 

“ Well, I have a day’s journey to make to the 
hills in Upper Galilee. A camel caravan passes 
near the place where my business calls me, 
as it goes to Damascus. I seek to accompany 
it for protection. I go on foot, but I have 
made arrangements for you to ride one of the 
camels.” 

“ Oh, am I really to go, too ? ” gasped Joel, in 
delighted astonishment. “ Oh, Rabbi Phineas! 
How did you ever think of asking me ? ” 

“ You have not seemed entirely well, of late,” 
was the answer. “ I thought the change would do 
you good. I said nothing about it before, for I 
had no opportunity to see your uncle until this 


JOEL*. A BOY OF GALILEE. 


31 


afternoon ; and I did not want to disappoint you, 
in case he refused his permission.” 

“ And he really says I may go?” demanded 
the boy, eagerly. 

“ Yes, the caravan moves in the morning, and 
we will go with it.” 

There was little more work done that day. 
Joel was so full of anticipations of his journey 
that he scarcely knew what he was doing. 
Phineas was busy with preparations for the 
comfort of his little family during his absence, 
and went into town again. 

On his return he seemed strangely excited. 
Abigail, seeing something was amiss, watched 
him carefully, but asked no questions. He took 
a piece of timber that had been laid away for 
some especial purpose, and began sawing it into 
small bits. 

“ Rabbi Phineas,” ventured Joel, respectfully, 
“ is that not the wood you charged me to save 
so carefully ? ” 

Phineas gave a start as he saw what he had 
done, and threw down his saw. 

u Truly,” he said, smiling, “ I am beside my¬ 
self with the news I have heard. I just now 
walked ten cubits past my own house, unknow¬ 
ing where I was, so deeply was I thinking upon 


32 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


it. Abigail,” he asked, “ do you remember my 
friend in Nazareth whom I so often speak of, — 
the son of Joseph the carpenter ? Last week 
he was bidden to a marriage in Cana. It hap¬ 
pened, before the feasting was over, the supply 
of wine was exhausted, and the mortified host 
knew not what to do. Six great jars of stone 
had been placed in the room, to supply the 
guests with water for washing. He changed that 
water into wine! ” 

“ I cannot believe it! ” answered Abigail, 
simply. 

a But Ezra ben Jared told me so. He was 
there, and drank of the wine,” insisted Phineas. 

“ He could not have done it,” said Abigail, “ un¬ 
less he were helped by the evil one, or unless he 
were a prophet. He is too a *goo<^ man to ask 
help of the powers of darkness; and it is beyond 
belief that a son of Joseph should be a prophet.” 

To this Phineas made no answer. His quiet 
thoughts were shaken out of their usual routine 
as violently as if by an earthquake. 

Joel thought more of the journey than he did 
of the miracle. It seemed to the impatient boy 
that the next day never would dawn. Many 
times in the night he wakened to hear the dis¬ 
tant crowing of cocks. At last, by straining his 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


33 


eyes he could distinguish the green leaves of the 
vine on the lattice from the blue of the half- 
opened blossoms. By that token he knew it was 
near enough the morning for him to commence 
saying his first prayers. 

Dressing noiselessly, so as not to disturb the 
sleeping family, he slipped out of the house and 
down to the well outside the city-gate. Here he 
washed, and then ate the little lunch he had 
wrapped up the night before. A meagre little 
breakfast, — only a hard-boiled egg, a bit of fish, 
and some black bread. But the early hour and 
his excitement took away his appetite for even 
that little. 

Soon all was confusion around the well, as the 
noisy drivers gathered to water their camels, and 
make their preparations for the start. 

Joel shrunk away timidly to the edge of the 
crowd, fearful that his friend Phineas had over¬ 
slept himself. 

In a few minutes he saw him coming with a 
staff in one hand, and a small bundle swinging 
from the other. 

Joel had one breathless moment of suspense as 
he was helped on to the back of the kneeling 
camel; one desperate clutch at the saddle as the 
huge animal plunged about and rose to its feet. 

3 


34 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Then he looked down at Phineas, and smiled 
blissfully. 

Oh, the delight of that slow easy motion ! The 
joy of being carried along without pain or effort! 
Who could realize how much it meant to the lit¬ 
tle fellow whose halting steps had so long been 
taken in weariness and suffering ? 

Swinging along in the cool air, so far above the 
foot-passengers, it seemed to him that he looked 
down upon a new earth. Blackbirds flew along 
the roads, startled by their passing. High over¬ 
head, a lark had not yet finished her morning 
song. Lambs bleated in the pastures, and the 
lowing of herds sounded on every hill-side. 

Not a sight or sound escaped the boy; and all 
the morning he rode on without speaking, not a 
care in his heart, not a cloud on his horizon. 

At noon they stopped in a little grove of olive- 
trees where a cool spring gurgled out from the 
rocks. 

Phineas spread out their lunch at a little dis¬ 
tance from the others; and they ate it quickly, 
with appetites sharpened by the morning’s 
travel. Afterwards Joel stretched himself out on 
the ground to rest, and was asleep almost as soon 
as his eyelids could shut out the noontide glare 
of the sun from his tired eyes. 



“ HE LOOKED DOWN AT PHINEAS, AND SMILED 
BLISSFULLY ” 













JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


35 


When he awoke, nearly an hour afterward, he 
heard voices near him in earnest conversation. 
Raising himself on his elbow, he saw Phineas at a 
little distance, talking to an old man who had 
ridden one of the foremost camels. 

They must have been talking of the miracle, 
for the old man, as he stroked his long white 
beard, was saying, “ But men are more wont to 
be astonished at the sun’s eclipse, than at his 
daily rising. Look, my friend ! ” 

He pointed to a wild grape-vine clinging to a 
tree near by. “ Do you see those bunches of 
half-grown grapes ? There is a constant miracle. 
Day by day, the water of the dew and rain is 
being changed into the wine of the grape. Soil 
and sunshine are turning into fragrant juices. 
Yet you feel no astonishment.’’ 

“ No,” assented Phineas; i( for it is by the 
hand of God it is done.” 

“ Why may not this be also?” said the old 
man. “ Even this miracle at the marriage feast 
in Cana ? ” 

Phineas started violently. “ What! ” he cried. 
u Do you think it possible that this friend of 
mine is the One to be sent of God ? ” 

“ Is not this the accepted time for the coming 
of Israel’s Messiah ? ” answered the old man, 


36 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


solemnly. “ Is it not meet that he should herald 
his presence by miracles and signs and wonders ? ” 

Joel lay down again to think over what he 
had just heard. Like every other Israelite in the 
whole world, he knew that a deliverer had been 
promised his people. 

Time and again he had read the prophecies 
that foretold the coming of a king through the 
royal line of David; time and again he had 
pictured to himself the mighty battles to take 
place between his down-trodden race and the 
haughty hordes of Caesar. Sometime, some¬ 
where, a universal dominion awaited them. He 
firmly believed that the day was near at hand; 
but not even in his wildest dreams had he ever 
dared to hope that it might come in his own 
lifetime. 

He raised himself on his elbow again, for the 
old man was speaking. 

“ About thirty years ago,” he said slowly, “ I 
went up to Jerusalem to be registered for taxa¬ 
tion, for the emperor’s decree had gone forth 
and no one could escape enrolment. You 
are too young to remember the taking of that 
census, my friend; but you have doubtless heard 
of it.” 

“ Yes,” assented Phineas, respectfully. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


37 


“ I was standing just outside the Joppa gate, 
bargaining with a man for a cage of gold finches 
he had for sale, which I wished to take to my 
daughter, when we heard some one speaking to 
us. Looking up we saw several strange men 
on camels, who were inquiring their way. They 
were richly dressed. The trappings and silver 
bells on their camels, as well as their own attire, 
spoke of wealth. Their faces showed that they 
were wise and learned men from far countries. 

“ We greeted them respectfully, but could not 
speak for astonishment when we heard their 
question : 

“ ‘ Where is he that is born king of the Jews ? 
For we have seen his star in the East, and have 
come to worship him/ The bird-seller looked at 
me, and I looked at him in open-mouthed wonder. 
The men rode on before we could find words 
wherewith to answer them. 

“ All sorts of rumors were afloat, and every¬ 
where we went next day, throughout Jerusalem, 
knots of people stood talking of the mysterious 
men, and their strange question. Even the king 
was interested, and sought audience with them.” 

“ Could any one answer them ? ” asked 
Phineas. 

“ Nay! but it was then impressed on me 


38 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


so surely that the Christ was born, that I have 
asked myself all these thirty years, ‘ Where is 
he that is born king of the Jews?’ Fori too 
would fain follow on to find and worship him. 
As soon as I return from Damascus, I shall go 
at once to Cana, and search for this miracle- 
worker.” 

The old man’s earnest words made a wonder¬ 
ful impression on Joel. All the afternoon, as they 
rose higher among the hills, the thought took 
stronger possession of him. He might yet live, 
helpless little cripple as he was, to see the dawn 
of Israel’s deliverance, and a son of David once 
more on its throne. 

Ride on, little pilgrim, happy in thy day¬ 
dreams ! The time is coming; but weary ways 
and hopeless heart-aches lie between thee and 
that to-morrow. The king is on his way to his 
coronation, but it will be with thorns. 

Ride on, little pilgrim, be happy whilst thou 
can! 


CHAPTER III. 


T was nearly the close of the day when 
the long caravan halted, and tents 
were pitched for the night near a little 
brook that came splashing down from 
a cold mountain-spring. 

Joel, exhausted by the long day’s travel, 
crowded so full of new experiences, was glad to 
stretch his cramped limbs on a blanket that 
Phineas took from the camel’s back. 

Here, through half-shut eyes, he watched the 
building of the camp-fire, and the preparations 
for the evening meal. 

“I wonder what Uncle Laban would do if he 
were here! ” he said to Phineas, with an amused 
smile. “ Look at those dirty drivers with their 
unwashed hands and unblessed food. How little 
regard they have for the Law. Uncle Laban 
would fast a lifetime rather than taste any¬ 
thing that had even been passed over a fire 
of their building. I can imagine I see him now, 




40 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


gathering up his skirts and walking on the tips 
of his sandals for fear of being touched by any¬ 
thing unclean.” 

“ Your Uncle Laban is a good man/’ answered 
Phineas, “ one careful not to transgress the Law.” 

“ Yes/’ said the boy. “ But I like your way 
better. You keep the fasts, and repeat the 
prayers, and love God and your neighbors. 
Uncle Laban is careful to do the first two things; 
I am not so sure about the others. Life is too 
short to be always washing one’s hands.” 

Phineas looked at the little fellow sharply. 
How shrewd and old he seemed for one of his 
years ! Such independence of thought was un¬ 
usual in a child trained as he had been. He 
scarcely knew how to answer him, so he turned 
his attention to spreading out the fruits and 
bread he had brought for their supper. 

Next morning, after the caravan had gone 
on without them, they started up a narrow 
bridle-path, that led through hillside-pastures 
where flocks of sheep and goats were feeding. 

The dew was still on the grass, and the air was 
so fresh and sweet in this higher altitude that 
Joel walked on with a feeling of strength and 
vigor unknown to him before. 

“ Oh, look! ” he cried, clasping his hands in 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


41 


delight, as a sudden turn brought them to the 
upper course of the brook whose waters, falling 
far below, had refreshed them the night before. 

The poetry of the Psalms came as naturally to 
the lips of this beauty-loving little Israelite as 
the breath he drew. 

Now he repeated, in a low, reverent voice, 
“ ‘ The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.’ 
Oh, Rabbi Phineas, did you ever know before 
that there could be such green pastures and still 
waters ? ” 

The man smiled at the boy’s radiant, upturned 
face. “ ‘ Yea, the earth is the Lord’s and the ful¬ 
ness thereof,’ ” he murmured. “ We have indeed 
a goodly heritage.” 

Hushed into silence by the voice of the hills 
and the beauty on every side, they walked on till 
the road turned again. 

Just ahead stood a house unusually large for 
a country district; everything about it bore an 
air of wealth and comfort. 

“ Our journey is at an end now,” said Phineas. 
“ Yonder lies the house of Nathan ben Obed. 
He owns all those flocks and herds we have seen 
in passing this last half hour. It is with him that 
I have business; and we will tarry with him until 
after the Sabbath.” 


42 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


They were evidently expected, for a servant 
came running out to meet them. He opened 
the gate and conducted them into a shaded 
court-yard. Here another servant took off their 
dusty sandals, and gave them water to wash their 
feet. 

They had barely finished, when an old man 
appeared in the doorway; his long beard and 
hair were white as the abba he wore. 

Phineas would have bowed himself to the 
ground before him, but the old man prevented 
it, by hurrying to take both hands in his, and 
kiss him on each cheek. 

“ Peace be to thee, thou son of my good friend 
Jesse! ” he said. “ Thou art indeed most wel- 
come.” 

Joel lagged behind. He was always sensitive 
about meeting strangers; but the man’s cordial 
welcome soon put him at his ease. 

He was left to himself a great deal during the 
few days following. The business on which the 
old man had summoned Phineas required long 
consultations. 

One day they rode away together to some out¬ 
lying pastures, and were gone until night-fall. 
Joel did not miss them. He was spending long 
happy hours in the country sunshine. There 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


43 


was something to entertain him, every way he 
turned. For a while he amused himself by sit¬ 
ting in the door and poring over a roll of parch¬ 
ment that Sarah, the wife of Nathan ben Obed, 
brought him to read. 

She was an old woman, but one would have 
found it hard to think so, had he seen how 
briskly she went about her duties of caring for 
such a large household. 

After Joel had read for some little time, he 
became aware that some one was singing outside, 
in a whining, monotonous way, and he laid down 
his book to listen. The voice was not loud, but 
so penetrating he could not shut it out, and fix 
his mind on his story again. So he rolled up the 
parchment and laid it on the chest from which 
it had been taken ; then winding his handker¬ 
chief around his head, turban fashion, he limped 
out in the direction of the voice. 

Just around the corner of the house, under a 
great oak-tree, a woman sat churning. From 
three smooth poles joined at the top to form a 
tripod, a goat-skin bag hung by long leather 
straps. This was filled with cream; she was 
slapping it violently back and forth in time to 
her weird song. 

Her feet were bare, and she wore only a 


44 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


coarse cotton dress. But a gay red handker¬ 
chief covered her black hair, and heavy copper 
rings hung from her nose and ears. 

The song stopped suddenly as she saw Joel. 
Then recognizing her master’s guest, she smiled 
at him so broadly that he could see her pretty 
white teeth. 

Joel hardly knew what to say at this unex¬ 
pected encounter, but bethought himself to ask 
the way to the sheep-folds and the watch-tower. 
“ It is a long way there,” said the woman, doubt¬ 
fully ; Joel flushed as he felt her black eyes scan¬ 
ning his misshapen form. 

Just then Sarah appeared in the door, and the 
maid repeated the question to her mistress. 

“To be sure,” she said. “You must go out 
and see our shepherds with their flocks. We 
have a great many employed just now, on all the 
surrounding hills. Rhoda, call your son, and bid 
him bring hither the donkey that he always 
drives to market.” 

The woman left her churning, and presently 
came back with a boy about Joel’s age, leading 
a donkey with only one ear. 

Joel knew what that meant. At some time in 
its life the poor beast had strayed into some 
neighbor’s field, and the owner of the field 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


45 




had been at liberty to cut off an ear in punish¬ 
ment. 

The boy that led him wore a long shirt of 
rough hair-cloth. His feet and legs were brown 
and tanned. A shock of reddish sunburned 
hair was the only covering for his head. There 
was a squint in one eye, and his face was 
freckled. 

He made an awkward obeisance to his mistress. 

“ Buz,” she said, “ this young lad is your mas¬ 
ter’s guest. Take him out and show him the flocks 
and herds, and the sheep-folds. He has never 
seen anything of shepherd life, so be careful to 
do his pleasure. Stay! ” she added to Joel. 
“ You will not have time to visit them all before 
the mid-day meal, so I will give you a lunch, 
and you can enjoy an entire day in the fields.” 

As the two boys started down the hill, Joel 
stole a glance at his companion. “ What a 
stupid-looking fellow 1 ” he thought; “ I doubt if 
he knows anything more than this sleepy beast I 
am riding. I wonder if he enjoys any of this 
beautiful world around him. How glad I am 
that I am not in his place.” 

Buz, trudging along in the dust, glanced at 
the little cripple on the donkey’s back with an 
inward shiver. 


46 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ What a dreadful lot his must be,” he 
thought. “ How glad I am that I am not like 
he is! ” 

It was not very long till the shyness began to 
wear off, and Joel found that the stupid shepherd 
lad had a very busy brain under his shock of 
tangled hair. His eyes might squint, but they 
knew just where to look in the bushes for the 
little hedge-sparrow’s nest. They could take 
unerring aim, too, when he sent the smooth 
sling-stones whizzing from the sling he carried. 

“ How far can you shoot with it? ” asked Joel. 

For answer Buz looked all around for some ob¬ 
ject on which to try his skill; then he pointed to 
a hawk slowly circling overhead. Joel watched 
him fit a smooth pebble into his sling ; he had 
no thought that the boy could touch it at such a 
distance. The stone whizzed through the air 
like a bullet, and the bird dropped several yards 
ahead of them. 

“ See! ” said Buz, as he ran to pick it up, and 
display it proudly. “ I struck it in the head.” 

Joel looked at him with increasing respect. 
“ That must have been the kind of sling that 
King David killed the giant with,” he said, hand¬ 
ing it back after a careful examination. 

“ King David ! ” repeated Buz, dully, “ seems to 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 47 

me I have heard of him, sometime or other; but 
I don’t know about the giant.” 

“ Why where have you been all your life ? ” 
cried Joel, in amazement. “ I thought everybody 
knew about that. Did you never go to a 
synagogue ? ” 

Buz shook his bushy head. “ They don’t have 
synagogues in these parts. The master calls us 
in and reads to us on the Sabbath; but I always 
get sleepy when I sit right still, and so I gene¬ 
rally get behind somebody and go to sleep. The 
shepherds talk to each other a good deal about 
such things, I am never with them though. I 
spend all my time running errands.” 

Shocked at such ignorance, Joel began to tell 
the shepherd king’s life with such eloquence that 
Buz stopped short in the road to listen. 

Seeing this the donkey stood still also, wagged 
its one ear, and went to sleep. But Buz listened, 
wider awake than he had ever been before in 
his life. 

The story was a favorite one with Joel, and he 
put his whole soul into it. 

“ Who told you that ? ” asked Buz, taking a 
long breath when the interesting tale was 
finished. 

“ Why I read it myself ! ” answered Joel. 


48 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Oh, can you read ? ” asked Buz, looking at 
Joel in much the same way that Joel had looked 
at him after he killed the hawk. “ I do not see 
how anybody can. It puzzles me how people 
can look at all those crooked black marks and 
call them rivers and flocks and things. I looked 
one time, just where Master had been reading 
about a great battle. And I did n’t see a single 
thing that looked like a warrior or a sword or a 
battle-axe, though he called them all by name. 
There were several little round marks that might 
have been meant for sling-stones ; but it was more 
than I could make out, how he could get any 
sense out of it.” 

Joel leaned back and laughed till the hills 
rang, laughed till the tears stood in his eyes, 
and the donkey waked up and ambled on. 

Buz did not seem to be in the least disturbed 
by his merriment, although he was puzzled as to 
its cause. He only stooped to pick up more 
stones for his sling as they went on. 

It was not long till they came to some of the 
men, —great brawny fellows dressed in skins, with 
coarse matted hair and tanned faces. How little 
they knew of what was going on in the busy 
world outside their fields! As Joel talked to 
them he found that Caesar’s conquests and 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


49 


Hero’s murders had only come to them as vague 
rumors. All the petty wars and political tur¬ 
moils were unknown to them. They could talk 
to him only of their flocks and their faith, both 
as simple as their lives. 

Joel, in his wisdom learned of the Rabbis, felt 
himself infinitely their superior, child though he 
was. But he enjoyed his day spent with them. 
He and Buz ate the ample lunch they had 
brought, dipped up water from the brook in cups 
they made of oak-leaves, and both finally fell 
asleep to the droning music of the shepherd’s 
pipes, played softly on the uplands. 

A distant rumble of thunder aroused them, 
late in the afternoon; and they started up to find 
the shepherds calling in their flocks. The gaunt 
sheep dogs raced to and fro, bringing the stray¬ 
ing goats together. The shepherds brought the 
sheep into line with well-aimed sling-shots, 
touching them first on one side, and then on the 
other, as oxen are guided by the touch of the 
goad. 

Joel looked up at the darkening sky with 
alarm. “ Who would have thought of a storm 
on such a day ! ” he exclaimed. 

Buz cocked his eyes at the horizon. “I 
thought it might come to this/’ he said ; “ for 
4 


50 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


as we came along this morning there were no 
spider-webs on the grass; the ants had not un¬ 
covered the doors of their hills ; and all the signs 
pointed to wet weather. I thought though, that 
the time of the latter rains had passed a week 
ago. I *im always glad when the stormy season 
is over. This one is going to be a hard one.” 

“ What shall we do ? ” asked Joel. 

Buz scratched his head. Then he looked at 
Joel. “ You never could get home on that tri¬ 
fling donkey before it overtakes us; and they ’ll be 
worried about you. I’d best take you up to the 
sheep-fold. You can stay all night there, very 
comfortably. I ’ll run home and tell them where 
you are, and come back for you in the morning.” 

Joel hesitated, appalled at spending the night 
among such dirty men; but the heavy boom of 
thunder, steadily rolling nearer, silenced his half- 
spoken objection. By the time the donkey had 
carried him up the hillside to the stone-walled 
enclosure round the watch-tower, the shepherds 
were at the gates with their flocks. 

Joel watched them go through the narrow 
passage, one by one. Each man kept count of 
his own sheep, and drove them under the rough 
sheds put up for their protection. 

A good-sized hut was built against the hillside, 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


51 


where the shepherds might find refuge. Buz 
pointed it out to Joel; then he turned the 
donkey into one of the sheds, and started home¬ 
ward on the run. 

Joel shuddered as a blinding flash of lightning 
was followed by a crash of thunder that shook 
the hut. The wind bore down through the trees 
like some savage spirit, shrieking and moaning 
as it flew. Joel heard a shout, and looked out 
to the opposite hillside. Buz was flying along in 
break-neck race with the storm. At that rate he 
would soon be home. How he seemed to enjoy 
the race, as his strong limbs carried him lightly 
as a bird soars ! 

At the top he turned to look back and laugh 
and wave his arms, — a sinewy little figure 
standing out in bold relief against a brazen sky. 

Joel watched till he was out of sight. Then, 
as the wind swooped down from the mountains, 
great drops of rain began to splash through the 
leaves. 

The men crowded into the hut. One of them 
started forward to close the door, but stopped 
suddenly, with his brown hairy hand uplifted. 

u Hark ye ! ” he exclaimed. 

Joel heard only the shivering of the wind in 
the tree-tops; but the man’s trained ear caught 


52 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


the bleating of a stray lamb, far off and very 
faint. 

“ I was afraid I was mistaken in my count; 
they jostled through the gate so fast I could 
not be sure.” Going to a row of pegs along the 
wall, he took down a lantern hanging there and 
lit it; then wrapping his coat of skins more 
closely around him, and calling one of the dogs, 
he set out into the gathering darkness. 

Joel watched the fitful gleam of the lantern, 
flickering on unsteadily as a will-o’-the-wisp. A 
moment later he heard the man’s deep voice 
calling tenderly to the lost animal; then the 
storm struck with such fury that they had to 
stand with their backs against the door of the 
hut to keep it closed. 

Flash after flash of lightning blinded them. 
The wind roared down the mountain and beat 
against the house till Joel held his breath in 
terror. It was midnight before it stopped. Joel 
thought of the poor shepherd out on the hills, 
and shuddered. Even the men seemed uneasy 
about him, as hour after hour passed, and he did 
not come. 

Finally he fell asleep in the corner, on a pile of 
woolly skins. In the gray dawn he was awakened 
by a great shout. He got up, and went to the 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 53 

door. There stood the shepherd. His bare 
limbs were cut by stones and torn by thorns. 
Blood streamed from his forehead where he had 
been wounded by a falling branch. The mud on 
his rough garments showed how often he had 
slipped and fallen on the steep paths. 

Joel noticed, with a thrill of sympathy, how 
painfully he limped. But there on the bowed 
shoulders was the lamb he had wandered so far 
to find; and as the welcoming shout arose again, 
Joel’s weak little cheer joined gladly in. 

“ How brave and strong he is,” thought the 
boy. “ He risked his life for just one pitiful 
little lamb.” 

The child’s heart went strangely out to this 
rough fellow who stood holding the shivering 
animal, sublimely unconscious that he had done 
anything more than a simple duty. 

Joel, who felt uncommonly hungry after his 
supperless night, thought he would mount the 
donkey and start back alone. But just as he 
was about to do so, a familiar bushy head showed 
itself in the door of the sheepfold. Buz had 
brought him some wheat-cakes and cheese to eat 
on the way back. 

Joel was so busy with this welcome meal that 
he did not talk much. Buz kept eying him in 


54 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


silence, as if he longed to ask some question. 
At last, when the cheese had entirely disappeared, 
he found courage to ask it. 

“ Were you always like that ? ” he said 
abruptly, motioning to Joel’s back and leg. 
Somehow the reference did not wound him as it 
generally did. He began to tell Buz about the 
Samaritan boy who had crippled him. He never 
was able to tell the story of his wrongs without 
growing passionately angry. He had worked 
himself into a white heat by the time he had 
finished. 

“I’d get even with him,” said Buz, excitedly, 
with a wicked squint of his eyes. 

“ How would you do it ? ” demanded Joel. 
u Cripple him as he did me ? ” 

“Worse than that!” exclaimed Buz, stopping 
to take deliberate aim at a leaf overhead, and 
shooting a hole exactly through the centre with 
his sling. “ I’d blind him as quick as that! It’s 
a great deal worse to be blind than lame.” 

Joel closed his eyes, and rode on a few 
moments in darkness. Then he opened them and 
gave a quick glad look around the landscape. 
“ My ! What if I never could have opened them 
again,” he thought. u Yes, Buz, you ’re right,” 
he said aloud. “ It is worse to be blind ; so I shall 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 55 

take Rehum’s eyesight also, some time. Oh, if 
that time were only here ! ” 

Although the subject of the miracle at Cana 
had been constantly in the mind of Phineas, and 
often near his lips, he did not speak of it to his 
host until the evening before his departure. 

It was just at the close of the evening meal. 
Nathan ben Obed rose half-way from his seat in 
astonishment, then sank back. 

“ How old a man is this friend of yours ? ” he 
asked. 

“ About thirty, I think,” answered Phineas. 
“ He is a little younger than I.” 

“ Where was he born ? ” 

“ In Bethlehem, I have heard it said, though 
his home has always been in Nazareth.” 

“ Strange, strange ! ” muttered the man, strok¬ 
ing his long white beard thoughtfully. 

Joel reached over and touched Phineas on the 
arm. “ Will you not tell Rabbi Nathan about 
the wonderful star that was seen at that time ? ” 
he asked, in a low tone. 

“ What was that ? ” asked the old man, arous¬ 
ing from his reverie. 

When Phineas had repeated his conversation 
with the stranger on the day of his journey, 
Nathan ben Obed exchanged meaning glances 
with his wife. 


56 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Send for the old shepherd Heber,” he said. 
“ I would have speech with him.” 

Rhoda came in to light the lamps. He bade 
her roll a cushioned couch that was in one corner 
to the centre of the room. 

“ This old shepherd Heber was born in Bethle¬ 
hem/’ he said ; “but since his sons and grandsons 
have been in my employ, he has come north to 
live. He used to help keep the flocks that 
belonged to the Temple, and that were used for 
sacrifices. His has always been one of the purest 
of lives; and I have never known such faith as he 
has. He is over a hundred years old, so must 
have been quite aged at the time of the event of 
which he will tell us.” 

Presently an old, old man tottered into the 
room, leaning on the shoulders of his two stal¬ 
wart grandsons. They placed him gently on the 
cushions of the couch, and then went into the 
court-yard to await his readiness to return. 
Like the men Joel had seen the day before, they 
were dressed in skins, and were wild-looking and 
rough. But this aged father, with dim eyes and 
trembling wrinkled hands, sat before them like 
some hoary patriarch, in a fine linen mantle. 

Pleased as a child, he saluted his new audience, 
and began to tell them his only story. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


57 


As the years had gone by, one by one the lights 
of memory had gone out in darkness. Well- 
known scenes had grown dim; old faces were 
forgotten; names he knew as well as his own, 
could not be recalled: but this one story was as 
fresh and real to him, as on the night he learned 
it. 

The words he chose were simple, the voice was 
tremulous with weakness; but he spoke with a 
dramatic fervor that made Joel creep nearer and 
nearer, until he knelt, unknowing, at the old 
man's knee, spell-bound by the wonderful tale. 

“We were keeping watch in the fields by 
night," began the old shepherd, “ I and my sons 
and my brethren. It was still and cold, and we 
spoke but little to each other. Suddenly over 
all the hills and plains shone a great light,— 
brighter than light of moon or stars or sunshine. 
It was so heavenly white we knew it must be 
the glory of the Lord we looked upon and we 
were sore afraid, and hid our faces, falling to the 
ground. And, lo ! an angel overhead spake to 
us from out of the midst of the glory, saying, 

1 Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings 
of great joy, which shall be to all people. For 
unto you is born this day in the city of David a 
Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall 


58 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe 
wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger/ 
“ And suddenly there was with the angel a 
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, 
and saying, ( Glory to God in the highest, peace 
on earth, good-will toward men! ’ 

“ Oh, the sound of the rejoicing that filled that 
upper air! Ever since in my heart have I car¬ 
ried that foretaste of heaven ! ” 

The old shepherd paused, with such a light on 
his upturned face that he seemed to his awe¬ 
struck listeners to be hearing again that same 
angelic chorus,— the chorus that rang down from 
the watch-towers of heaven, across earth’s lowly 
sheep-fold, on that first Christmas night. 

There was a solemn hush. Then he said, a And 
when they were gone away, and the light and 
the song were no more with us, we spake one to 
another, and rose in haste and went to Bethle¬ 
hem. And we found the Babe lying in a manger 
with Mary its mother; and we fell down and 
worshipped Him. 

“ Thirty years has it been since the birth of 
Israel’s Messiah ; and I sit and wonder all the day,— 
wonder when He will appear once more to His 
people. Surely the time must be well nigh here 
when He may claim His kingdom. 0 Lord, let 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


59 


not Thy servant depart until these eyes that 
beheld the Child shall have seen the King in 
His beauty! ” 

Joel remained kneeling beside old Heber, per¬ 
fectly motionless. He was fitting together the 
links that he had lately found. A child, heralded 
by angels, proclaimed by a star worshipped by 
the Magi! A man changing water into wine at 
only a word ! 

“ I shall yet see Him ! ” exclaimed the voice of 
old Heber, with such sublime assurance of faith 
that it found a response in every heart. 

There was another solemn stillness, so deep 
that the soft fluttering of a night-moth around 
the lamp startled them. 

Then the child’s voice rang out, eager and 
shrill, but triumphant as if inspired: 61 Rabbi 

Phineas, lie it was who changed the water into 
wine ! — This friend of Nazareth and the babe of 
Bethlehem are the same ! ” 

The heart of the carpenter was strangely 
stirred, but it was full of doubt. Not that the 
Christ had been born,— the teachings of all his 
lifetime led him to expect that; but that the 
chosen One could be a friend of his,— the thought 
was too wonderful for him. 

The old shepherd sat on the couch, feebly 


60 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


twisting his fingers, and talking to himself. He 
was repeating bits of the story he had just told 
them: “ And, lo, an angel overhead ! ” he mut¬ 
tered. Then he looked up, whispering softly, 
“ Glory to God in the highest — and peace, yes, 
on earth peace ! ” 

“ He seems to have forgotten everything else,” 
said Nathan, signalling to the men outside to 
lead him home. “ His mind is wiped away 
entirely, that it may keep unspotted the record 
of that night’s revelation. He tells it over 
and over, whether he has a listener or not.” 

They led him gently out, the white-haired, 
white-souled old shepherd Heber. It seemed to 
Joel that the wrinkled face was illuminated by 
some inner light, not of this world, and that he 
lingered among men only to repeat to them, 
over and over, his one story. That strange 
sweet story of Bethlehem’s first Christmas-tide. 


CHAPTER IV. 


EXT morning a goodly train set out 
from the gates of Nathan ben Obed. 
It was near the time of the feast of 
the Passover, and he, with many of 
his household, was going down to Jerusalem. 

The family and guests went first on mules and 
asses. Behind them followed a train of servants, 
driving the lambs, goats, and oxen to be offered 
as sacrifices in the temple, or sold in Jerusalem 
to other pilgrims. 

All along the highway, workmen were busy 
repairing the bridges, and cleaning the springs 
and wells, soon to be used by the throngs of 
travellers. 

All the tombs near the great thoroughfares 
were being freshly white-washed ; they gleamed 
with a dazzling purity through the green trees, 
only to warn passers-by of the defilement within. 
For had those on their way to the feast approached 
too near these homes of the dead, even uncon- 



62 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


sciously, they would have been accounted unclean, 
and unfit to partake of the Passover. Nothing 
escaped Joel’s quick sight, from the tulips and 
marigolds flaming in the fields, to the bright¬ 
eyed little viper crawling along the stone-wall. 

But while he looked, he never lost a word that 
passed between his friend Phineas and their host. 
The pride of an ancient nation took possession of 
him as he listened to the prophecies they quoted. 

Every one they met along the way coming 
from Capernaum had something to say about 
this new prophet who had arisen in Galilee. 
When they reached the gate of the city, a 
great disappointment awaited them. He had 
been there , and gone again . 

Nathan ben Obed and his train tarried only 
one night in the place, and then pressed on 
again towards Jerusalem. Phineas went with 
them. 

“ You shall go with us next year,” he said to 
Joel; “then you will be over twelve. I shall 
take my own little ones too, and their mother.” 

“ Only one more year,” exclaimed Joel, joy¬ 
fully. “ If that passes as quickly as the one 
just gone, it will soon be here.” 

“ Look after my little family,” said the carpen¬ 
ter, at parting. “ Come every day to the work, if 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


63 


you wish, just as when I am here; and remember, 
my lad, you are almost a man.’’ 

Almost a man ! The words rang in the boy’s 
thoughts all day as he pounded and cut, keeping 
time to the swinging motion of hammer and saw. 
Almost a man ! But what kind of one ? Crippled 
and maimed, shorn of the strength that should 
have been his pride, beggared of his priestly 
birthright. 

Almost, it might be, but never in its fulness, 
could he hope to attain the proud stature of 
a perfect man. 

A fiercer hate sprang up for the enemy who 
had made him what he was; and the wild burn¬ 
ing for revenge filled him so he could not 
work. He put away his tools, and went up 
the narrow outside stairway that led to the flat 
roof of the carpenter’s house. It was called 
the “ upper chamber.” Here a latticed pavilion, 
thickly overgrown with vines, made a cool 
green retreat where he might rest and think 
undisturbed. 

Sitting there, he could see the flash of white 
sails on the blue lake, and slow-moving masses 
of fleecy clouds in the blue of the sky above. 
They brought before him the picture of the 
flocks feeding on the pastures of Nathan ben Obed. 


64 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Then, naturally enough, there flashed through 
his mind a thought of Buz. He seemed to see 
him squinting his little eyes to take aim at 
a leaf overhead. He heard the stone whirr 
through it, as Buz said: “I’d blind him!” 

Some very impossible plans crept into Joel’s 
day-dreams just then. He imagined himself 
sitting in a high seat, wrapped in robes of 
state ; soldiers stood around him to carry out 
his slightest wish. The door would open and 
Rehum would be brought forth in fetters. 

“ What is your will concerning the prisoner, 
0 most gracious sovereign,” the jailer would 
ask. 

Joel closed his eyes, and waved his hand before 
an imaginary audience. “ Away with him, — to 
the torture! Wrench his limbs on the rack! 
Brand his eyelids with hot irons! Let him suf¬ 
fer all that man can suffer and live! Thus 
shall it be done unto the man on whom the 
king delighteth to take vengeance! ” 

Joel was childish enough to take a real satis¬ 
faction in this scene he conjured up. But as 
it faded away, he was man enough to realize 
it could never come to pass, save in his imagi¬ 
nation ; he could never be in such a position 
for revenge, unless, — 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


65 


That moment a possible way seemed to open 
for him. Phineas would probably see his friend 
of Nazareth at the Passover. What could be more 
natural than that the old friendship should be re¬ 
newed. He whose hand had changed the water 
into wine should finally cast out the alien king 
who usurped the throne of Israel, for one in 
whose veins the blood of David ran royal red, — 
what was more to be expected than that? 

The Messiah would come to His kingdom, and 
then — and then — the thought leaped to its 
last daring limit. 

Phineas, who had been His earliest friend and 
playfellow, would he not be lifted to the right 
hand of power? Through him, then, lay the 
royal road to revenge. 

The thought lifted him unconsciously to his 
feet. He stood with his arms out-stretched in 
the direction of the far-away Temple, like some 
young prophet. David’s cry of triumph rose to 
his lips: “ Thou hast girded me with strength 
unto the battle,” he murmured. “Thou hast 
also given me the necks of mine enemies, that 
I might destroy them that hate me! ” 

A sweet baby voice at the foot of the steps 
brought him suddenly down from the height of 
his intense feeling. 


5 


66 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“Joel! Joel!” called little Ruth, “ where is 
you ? ” 

Then Jesse’s voice added, “We ’re all a-coming 
up for you to tell us a story.” 

Up the stairs they swarmed to the roof, the 
carpenter’s children and half-a-dozen of their 
little playmates. 

Joel, with his head still in the clouds, told 
them of a mighty king who was coming to slay 
all other kings, and change all tears — the waters 
of affliction — into the red wine of joy. 

“ H’m! I don’t think much of that story,” 
said Jesse, with out-spoken candor. “ I’d rather 
hear about Goliath, or the bears that ate up the 
forty children.” 

But Joel was in no mood for such stories, just 
then. On some slight pretext he escaped from 
his exacting audience, and went down to the sea¬ 
shore. Here, skipping stones across the water, or 
writing idly in the sand, he was free to go on with 
his fascinating day-dreams. 

For the next two weeks the boy gave up work 
entirely. He haunted the toll-gates and public 
streets, hoping to hear some startling news from 
Jerusalem. He was so full of the thought that 
some great revolution was about to take place, 
that he could not understand how people could 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


67 


be so indifferent. All on fire with the belief 
that this man of Nazareth was the one in whom 
lay the nation’s hope, he looked and longed for 
the return of Phineas, that he might learn 
more of Him. 

But Phineas had little to tell when he came 
back. He had met his friend twice in Jerusa¬ 
lem, — the same gentle quiet man he had always 
known, making no claims, working no wonders. 
Phineas had heard of His driving the money¬ 
changers out of the Temple one day, and those 
who sold doves in its sacred courts, although 
he had not witnessed the scene. 

The carpenter was rather surprised that He 
should have made such a public disturbance. 

“ Rabbi Phineas,” said Joel, with a trembling 
voice, “ don’t you think your friend is the 
prophet we are expecting?” 

Phineas shook his head. “ No, my lad, I am 
sure of it now.” 

“ But the herald angels and the star,” insisted 
the boy. 

“ They must have proclaimed some one else. 
He is the best man I ever knew; but there is no 
more of the king in His nature, than there is in 
mine.” 

The man’s positive answer seemed to shatter 


68 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Joel’s last hope. Downcast and disappointed, 
he went back to his work. Only with money 
could he accomplish his life’s object, and only 
by incessant work could he earn the shining 
shekels that he needed. 

Phineas wondered sometimes at the dogged 
persistance with which the child stuck to his 
task, in spite of his tired, aching body. 

He had learned to make sandal-wood jewel- 
boxes, and fancifully wrought cups to hold the 
various dyes and cosmetics used by the ladies 
of the court. 

Several times, during the following months, he 
begged a sail in some of the fishing-boats that 
landed at the town of Tiberias. Having gained 
the favor of the keeper of the gates, by various 
little gifts of his own manufacture, he always 
found a ready admittance to the palace. 

To the ladies of the court, the sums they paid 
for his pretty wares seemed trifling; but to 
Joel the small bag of coin hidden in the folds 
of his clothes was a little fortune, daily growing 
larger. 


CHAPTER V. 



IT was Sabbath morning in the house 
of Laban the Pharisee. Joel, sitting 
alone in the court-yard, could hear 
his aunt talking to the smaller chil¬ 
dren, as she made them ready to take with her 
to the synagogue. 

From the upper chamber on the roof, came also 
a sound of voices, for two guests had arrived the 
day before, and were talking earnestly with their 
host. Joel already knew the object of their 
visit. 

They had been there before, when the preach¬ 
ing of John Baptist had drawn such great crowds 
from all the cities to the banks of the Jordan. 
They had been sent out then by the authorities 
in Jerusalem to see what manner of man was 
this who, clothed in skins and living in the 
wilderness, could draw the people so wonder¬ 
fully, and arouse such intense excitement. Now 
they had come on a like errand, although on 
their own authority. 


70 JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 

Another prophet had arisen whom this John 
Baptist had declared to be greater than him¬ 
self. They had seen Him drive the money¬ 
changers from the Temple; they had heard 
many wild rumors concerning Him. So they 
followed Him to His home in the little village 
of Nazareth, where they heard Him talk in the 
synagogue. 

They had seen the listening crowd grow 
amazed at the eloquence of His teaching, and 
then indignant that one so humble as a car¬ 
penter’s son should claim that Isaiah’s prophe¬ 
cies had been fulfilled in Himself. 

They had seen Him driven from the home 
of His boyhood, and now had come to Caper¬ 
naum that they might be witnesses in case 
this impostor tried to lead these people astray 
by repeating His claims. 

All this Joel heard, and more, as the earnest 
voices came distinctly down to him through 
the deep hush of the Sabbath stillness. It 
shook his faith somewhat, even in the good¬ 
ness of this friend of his friend Phineas, that 
these two learned doctors of the Law should 
consider Him an impostor. 

He stood aside respectfully for them to pass, 
as they came down the outside stairway, and 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 71 

crossed the court-yard on their way to the 
morning service. 

Their long, flowing, white robes, their broad 
phylacteries, their dignified bearing, impressed 
him greatly. He knew they were wise, good 
men whose only aim in life was to keep the 
letter of the Law, down to its smallest details. 
He followed them through the streets until they 
came to the synagogue. They gave no greeting 
to any one they passed, but walked with rever¬ 
ently bowed heads that their pious meditation 
might not be disturbed by the outside world. 
His aunt had already gone by the way of the 
back streets, as it was customary for women to 
go, her face closely veiled. 

The synagogue, of finely chiselled limestone, 
with its double rows of great marble pillars, 
stood in its white splendor, the pride of the 
town. It had been built by the commander of 
the garrison who, though a Roman centurion, 
was a believer in the God of the Hebrews, 
and greatly loved by the whole people. 

Joel glanced up at the lintel over the door, 
where Aarons rod and a pot of manna carved 
in the stone were constant reminders to the 
daily worshippers of the Hand that fed and 
guided them from generation to generation. 


72 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Joel limped slowly to his place in the congre¬ 
gation. In the seats of honor, facing it, sat 
his uncle and his guests, among the rulers of the 
synagogue. 

For a moment his eyes wandered curiously 
around, hoping for a glimpse of the man whose 
fame was beginning to spread all over Galilee. 
It had been rumored that He would be there. 
But Joel saw only familiar faces. The elders 
took their seats. 

During the reading of the usual psalm, the re¬ 
citing of a benediction, and even the confession 
of the creed, Joel's thoughts wandered. When 
the reader took up his scroll to read the pas¬ 
sages from Deuteronomy, the boy stole one 
more quick glance all around. But as the 
whole congregation arose, and turned facing 
the east, he resolutely fixed his mind on the 
duties of the hour. 

The eighteen benedictions, or prayers, were 
recited in silence by each devout worshipper. 
Then the leader repeated them aloud, all the 
congregation responding with their deep Amen! 
and Amen! Joel always liked that part of the 
service and the chanting that followed. 

Another roll of parchment was brought out. 
The boy looked up with interest. Probably one 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 73 

of his uncle’s guests would be invited to read 
from it, and speak to the people. 

No, it was a stranger whom he had not noticed 
before, sitting behind one of the tall elders, who 
was thus honored. 

Joel’s heart beat so fast that the blood throbbed 
against his ear-drums, as he heard the name 
called. It was the friend of his friend Phineas, 

the Rabbi Jesus . 

Joel bent forward, all his soul in his eyes, as 
the stranger unrolled the book, and began to 
read from the Prophets. The words were old 
familiar ones; he even knew them by heart. 
But never before had they carried with them 
such music, such meaning. When He laid aside 
the roll, and began to speak, every fibre in the 
boy’s being thrilled in response to the wonder¬ 
ful eloquence of that voice and teaching. 

The whole congregation sat spell-bound, forget¬ 
ful of everything except the earnestness of the 
speaker who moved and swayed them as the 
wind does the waving wheat. 

Suddenly there arose a wild shriek, a sort of 
demon-like howl that transfixed them with its 
piercing horror. Every one turned to see the 
cause of the startling sound. There, near the 
door, stood a man whom they all knew, — an 


74 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


unhappy creature said to be possessed of an 
unclean spirit. 

“ Ha! ” he cried, in a blood-curdling tone. 
“What have we to do with Thee, Jesus of 
Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I 
know Thee, who thou art, the holy One of 
God!” 

There was a great stir, especially in the 
woman’s gallery; and those standing nearest 
him backed away as far as possible. 

Every face was curious and excited, at this 
sudden interruption, — every face but one ; the 
Rabbi Jesus alone was calm. 

“ Hold thy peace and come out of him! ” He 
commanded. There was one more shriek, worse 
than before, as the man fell at His feet in a 
convulsion; but in a moment he stood up 
again, quiet and perfectly sane. The wild look 
was gone from his eyes. Whatever had been 
the strange spell that had bound him before, 
he was now absolutely free. 

There was another stir in the woman’s gallery. 
Contrary to all rule or custom, an aged woman 
pushed her way out. Down the stairs she went, 
unveiled through the ranks of the men, to reach 
her son whom she had just seen restored to rea¬ 
son. With a glad cry she fell forward, fainting, 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


75 


in his arms, and was borne away to the little 
home, now no longer darkened by the shadow 
of a sore affliction. 

Little else was talked about that day, until 
the rumor of another miracle began to spread 
through the town. Phineas, stopping at Laban’s 
house on his way home from an afternoon ser¬ 
vice, confirmed the truth of it. 

One of his neighbors had been dangerously 
ill with a fever that was common in that part 
of the country; she was the mother-in-law of 
Simon bar Jonah. It was at his home that the 
Rabbi Jesus had been invited to dine. 

As soon as He entered the house, they be¬ 
sought Him to heal her. Standing beside her, 
He rebuked the fever; and immediately she 
arose, and began to help her daughter prepare 
for the entertainment of their guest. 

“ Abigail was there yesterday,” said Phineas, 
“ to carry some broth she had made. She 
thought then it would be impossible for the poor 
creature to live through the night. I saw 
the woman a few hours ago, and she is perfectly 
well and strong.” 

That night when the sun was setting, and the 
Sabbath was at an end, a motley crowd streamed 
along the streets to the door of Simon bar Jonah. 


76 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Men carried on couches; children in their mother’s 
arms; those wasted by burning fevers; those 
shaken by unceasing palsy; the lame ; the blind ; 
the death-stricken, — all pressing hopefully on. 

What a scene in that little court-yard as the 
sunset touched the wan faces and smiled into 
dying eyes. Hope for the hopeless! Balm for 
the broken in body and spirit! There was re¬ 
joicing in nearly every home in Capernaum that 
night, for none were turned away. Not one was 
refused. It is written, “ He laid His hand on 
every one of them, and healed them.” 

That he might not seem behind his guests in 
zeal and devotion to the Law, the dignified Laban 
would not follow the crowds. 

“ Let others be carried away by strange doc¬ 
trines and false prophets, if they will,” he de¬ 
clared ; “ as for me and my household, we will 
cling to the true faith of our fathers.” 

So the three sat in the upper chamber on the 
roof, and discussed the new teacher with many 
shakes of their wise heads. 

“It is not lawful to heal on the Sabbath day,” 
they declared. “Twice during the past day He 
has openly transgressed the Law. He will lead 
all Galilee astray! ” 

But Galilee cared little how far the path 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 77 

turned from the narrow faith of the Pharisees, 
so long as it led to life and healing. 

Down in the garden below, the children 
climbed up on the grape-arbor, and peered 
through the vines at the surging crowds which 
they would have joined, had it not been for 
Laban’s strict commands. 

One by one they watched people whom they 
knew go by, some carried on litters, some lean¬ 
ing on the shoulders of friends. One man 
crawled painfully along on his hands and knees. 

After awhile the same people began to come 
back. 

“ Look, quick, Joel! ” one of the children 
cried; “ there goes Simon ben Levi. Why, his 
palsy is all gone ! He does n’t shake a bit now ! 
And there’s little Martha that lives out near 
Aunt Rebecca’s! Don’t you know how white 
and thin she looked when they carried her by a 
little while ago ? See ! she is running along by 
herself now as well as we are ! ” 

The children could hardly credit their own 
sense of sight, when neighbors they had known 
all their lives to be bed-ridden invalids came 
back cured, singing and praising God. 

It was a sight they never could forget. So 
they watched wonderingly till darkness fell, and 


78 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


the last happy-hearted healed one had gone 
home to a rejoicing household. 

While the fathers on the roof were deciding 
they would have naught of this man, the chil¬ 
dren in the grape-arbor were storing up in their 
simple little hearts these proofs of his power 
and kindness. 

Then they gathered around Joel on the door¬ 
step, while he repeated the story that the old 
shepherd Heber had told him, of the angels and 
the star, and the baby they had worshipped that 
night in Bethlehem. 

“ Come, children,” called his Aunt Leah, as she 
lit the lamp that was to burn all night. “ Come! 
It is bed-time ! ” 

His cousin Hannah lingered a moment after 
the Others had gone in, to say, “ That was a 
pretty story, Joel. Why don’t you go and ask 
the good man to straighten your back ? ” 

Strange as it may seem, this was the first time 
the thought had occurred to him that he might 
be benefited himself. He had been so long* 
accustomed to thinking of himself as hopelessly 
lame, that the wonderful cures he had witnessed 
had awakened no hope for himself. A new life 
seemed to open up before him at the little girl’s 
question. He sat on the doorstep thinking 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 79 

about it until his Uncle Laban came down and 
crossly ordered him to go to bed. 

He went in, saying softly to himself, “ I will go 
to him to-morrow; yes, early in the morning ! ” 
Strange that an old proverb should cross his 
mind just then. “ Boast not thyself of to¬ 
morrow. Thou knowest not what a day may 
bring forth.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


HEN Joel went out on the streets next 
morning, although it was quite early, 
he saw a disappointed crowd coming 
up from the direction of Simon’s 
house on the lake shore. 

“ Where have all these people been ? ” he 
asked of the baker’s boy, whom he ran against 
at the first corner. 

The boy stopped whistling, and rested his 
basket of freshly baked bread against his knee, 
as he answered : — 

“ They were looking for the Rabbi who healed 
so many people last night. Say ! do you know,” 
he added quickly, as if the news were too good 
to keep, u he healed my mother last night. You 
cannot think how different it seems at home, to 
have her going about strong and well like she 
used to be.” 

Joel’s eyes brightened. u Do you think he ’ll 
do anything for me, if I go to him now?” he 
asked wistfully. “ Do you suppose he could 
straighten out such a crooked back as mine? 



JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


81 


Look how much shorter this leg is than the 
other. Oh, do you think he could make them 
all right ? ” 

The boy gave him a critical survey, and then 
answered, emphatically, “ Yes! It really does not 
look like it would be as hard to straighten you 
as old Jeremy, the tailor’s father. He was 
twisted all out of shape, you know. Well, I ’ll 
declare ! There he goes now ! ” 

Joel looked across the street. The wrinkled 
face of the old basket-weaver was a familiar 
sight in the market; but Joel could hardly recog¬ 
nize the once crippled form, now restored to its 
original shapeliness. 

“ I am going right now,” he declared, starting 
to run in his excitement. “ I can’t wait another 
minute.” 

“But he’s gone!” the boy called after him. 
“ That’s why the people are all coming back.” 

Joel sat down suddenly on a ledge projecting 
from the stone-wall. “ Gone ! ” he echoed drear¬ 
ily. It was as if he had been starving, and the 
life-giving food held to his famished lips had been 
suddenly snatched away. Both his heart and his 
feet felt like lead when he got up after awhile, 
and dragged himself slowly along to the car¬ 
penter’s house. 


6 


82 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


It was such a bitter disappointment to be so 
near the touch of healing, and then to miss it 
altogether. 

No cheerful tap of the hammer greeted him. 
The idle tools lay on the deserted workbench. 
u Disappointed again ! ” he thought. Then the 
doves cooed, and he caught a glimpse of Ruth’s 
fair hair down among the garden lilies. 

“ Where is your father, little one ? ” he called. 

u Gone away wiv ’e good man ’at makes every¬ 
body well, ,, she answered. Then she came skip¬ 
ping down the path to stand close beside him, 
and say confidentially : “ I saw Him — ’e good 
man — going by to Simon’s house. I peeped 
out ’tween ’e wose-vines, and He looked wite 
into my eyes wiv His eyes, and I could n’t help 
loving Him! ” 

Joel looked into the beautiful baby face, think¬ 
ing what a picture it must have made, as framed 
in roses it smiled out on the Tender-hearted One, 
going on His mission of help and healing. 

With her little hand in his, she led him back 
to hope, for she took him to her mother, who 
comforted him with the assurance that Phineas 
expected to be home soon, and doubtless his 
friend would be with him. 

So there came another time to work by him- 



“‘I PEEPED OUT ’TWEEN ’E WOSE - VINES 


1 » 














JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 83 

self and dream of the hour surely dawning. And 
the dreams were doubly sweet now; for side by 
side with his hope of revenge, was the belief in 
his possible cure. 

They heard only once from the absent ones. 
Word came back that a leper had been healed. 
Joel heard it first, down at the custom-house. 
He had gotten into the way of strolling down in 
that direction after his work was done; for here 
the many trading-vessels from across the lake, or 
those that shipped from Capernaum, had to stop 
and pay duty. Here, too, the great road of 
Eastern commerce passed which led from Damas¬ 
cus to the harbors of the West. So here he 
would find a constant stream of travellers, 
bringing the latest news from the outside 
world. 

The boy did not know, as he limped up and 
down the water’s edge, longing for some word 
from his absent friends, that near by was one 
who watched almost as eagerly as himself. 

It was Levi-Matthew, one of the officials, sit¬ 
ting in the seat of custom. Sprung from the 
same priestly tribe as Joel, he had sunk so low, 
in accepting the office of tax-gatherer, that the 
righteous Laban would not have touched him so 

O 

much as with the tip of his sandal. 


84 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Bears and lions/’ said a proverb, “ might be 
the fiercest wild beasts in the forests; but publi¬ 
cans and informers were the worst in cities.” 

One could not bear witness in the courts, and 
the disgrace extended to the whole family. They 
were even classed with robbers and murderers. 
No doubt there was deep cause for such a feeling; 
as a class they were unscrupulous and unjust. 
There might have been good ones among their 
number, but the company they kept condemned 
them to the scorn of high and low. 

When a Jew hates, or a Jew scorns, be sure it 
is thoroughly done ; there is no half-way course 
for his intense nature to take. 

So this son of Levi, sitting in the seat of 
custom, and this son of Levi strolling past him, 
were, socially, as far apart as the east is from 
the west, — as unlike as thorn and blossom on 
the same tribal stem. 

Matthew knew all the fishermen and ship¬ 
owners that thronged the busy beach in front of 
him. The sons of Jonah and of Zebedee passed 
him daily; and he must have wondered when he 
saw them throw down their nets and leave every¬ 
thing to follow a stranger. 

He must have wondered also at the reports on 
every tongue, and the sights he had seen himself 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 85 

of miraculous healing. But while strangely 
drawn towards this new teacher from Nazareth, 
it could have been with no thought that the 
hand and the voice were for him. He was a pub¬ 
lican, and how could they reach to such depths ? 

A caravan had just stopped. The pack- 
animals were being unloaded, bales and packages 
opened, private letters pried into. The insolent 
officials were tossing things right and left, as 
they made a list of the taxable goods. 

Joel was watching them with as much interest 
as if he had not witnessed such scenes dozens of 
times before, till he noticed a group gathering 
around one of the drivers. He was telling what 
he had seen on his way to Capernaum. Several 
noisy companions kept interrupting him to bear 
witness to the truth of his statements. 

“ And he who but a moment before had been 
the most miserable of lepers stood up before us 
all, cleansed of his leprosy. His skin was soft 
and fair as a child’s, and his features were restored 
to him,” said the driver. 

Joel and Levi-Matthew stood side by side. At 
another time the boy might have drawn his 
clothes away to keep from brushing against the 
despised tax-gatherer. But he never noticed 
now that their elbows touched. 


86 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


When he had heard all there was to be told, 
he limped away to carry the news to Abigail. 
To know that others were being cured daily 
made him all the more impatient for the return 
of this friend of Phineas. 

The publican turned again to his pen and his 
account-book. He, too, looked forward with a 
burning heart to the return of the Nazarene, 
unknowing why he did so. 

At last Joel heard of the return, in a very un¬ 
expected way. There were guests in the house 
of Laban again. One of the rabbis who had been 
there before, and a scribe from Jerusalem. Now 
there were longer conferences in the upper 
chamber, and graver shakings of the head, over 
this false prophet whose fame was spreading 
wider. 

The miracle of healing the paralytic at the 
pool of Bethesda, when he had gone down to 
Jerusalem to one of the many feasts, had stirred 
Judea to its farthest borders. So these two men 
had been sent to investigate. 

On the very afternoon of their arrival, a report 
flew through the streets that the Eabbi Jesus was 
once more in the town. Their host led them 
with all the haste their dignity would allow, to 
the house where He was said to be preaching. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 87 

The common people fell back when they saw 
them, and allowed them to pass into the centre 
of the throng. 

The Rabbi stood in the doorway, so that both 
those in the house and without could distinctly 
hear Him. The scribe had never seen Him be¬ 
fore, and in spite of his deep-seated prejudice 
could not help admiring the man whom he had 
come prepared to despise. It was no wild fanatic 
who stood before him, no noisy debater whose 
fiery eloquence would be likely to excite and in¬ 
flame His hearers. 

He saw a man of gentlest dignity; truth 
looked out from the depths of His calm eyes. 
Every word, every gesture, carried with it the 
conviction that He who spoke taught with God- 
given authority. 

The scribe began to grow uneasy as he list¬ 
ened, carried along by the earnest tones of the 
speaker. 

There was a great commotion on the edge of 
the crowd, as some one tried to push through to 
the centre. 

“ Stand back ! Go away ! ” demanded angry 
voices. 

The scribe was a tall man, and by stretching a 
little, managed to see over the heads of the 


88 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


others. Four men, bearing a helpless paralytic, 
were trying to carry him through the throngs ; but 
they would not make room for this interruption. 

After vainly hunting for some opening through 
which they might press, the men mounted the 
steep, narrow staircase on the outside of the 
building, and drew the man up, hammock and 
all, to the flat roof on which they stood. 

There was a sound of scraping and scratching 
as they broke away the brush and mortar that 
formed the frail covering of the roof. Then the 
people in the room below saw slowly coming down 
upon them between the rafters, this man whom 
no obstacle could keep back from the Great 
Physician. 

But the paralyzed hands could not lift them¬ 
selves in supplication; the helpless tongue 
could frame no word of pleading,— only the 
eyes of the sick man could look up into the 
pitying face bent over him, and implore a 
blessing. 

The scribe leaned forward, confidently expect¬ 
ing to hear the man bidden to arise. To his sur¬ 
prise and horror, the words he heard were: 
“ Son, thy sins be forgiven thee ! ” 

He looked at Laban and his companion, and 
the three exchanged meaning glances. When 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


89 


they looked again at the speaker, His eyes seemed 
to read their inmost thoughts. 

“ Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts ? ” He 
asked, with startling distinctness. “ Whether is 
it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins 
he forgiven thee ; or to say, Arise, and take up thy 
bed, and walk ? But that ye may know that the 
Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins,” 
here He turned to the helpless form lying at 
His feet, “ I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy 
bed, and go thy way unto thine house.” 

The man bounded to his feet, and picking up 
the heavy rug on which he had been lying, went 
running and leaping out of their midst. 

Without a word, Laban and his two guests 
drew their clothes carefully around them, and 
picked their way through the crowd. Phineas, 
who stood at the gate, gave them a respectful 
greeting. Laban only turned his eyes away with 
a scowl, and passed coldly on. 

“ The man is a liar and a blasphemer! ” ex¬ 
claimed the scribe, as they sat once more in the 
privacy of Laban’s garden. 

“ Only God can forgive sins! ” added his com¬ 
panion. “ This paralytic should have taken a 
sin-offering to the priest. For only by the blood 
of sacrifice can one hope to obtain pardon.” 


90 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Still He healed him,” spoke up the scribe, 
musingly. 

“ Only through the power of Satan! ” inter¬ 
rupted Laban. “ When He says He can forgive 
sins, He blasphemes.” 

The other Pharisee leaned forward to say, in 
an impressive whisper: “ Then you know the Law 
on that point. He should be stoned to death, His 
body hung on a tree, and then buried with shame! ” 

It was not long after that Joel, just back from 
a trip to Tiberias in a little sailing-boat, came 
into the garden. He had been away since early 
morning, so had heard nothing of what had just 
occurred; he had had good luck in disposing of his 
wares, and was feeling unusually cheerful. Hear¬ 
ing voices in the corner of the garden, he was 
about to pass out again, when his uncle called 
him sternly to come to him at once. 

Surprised at the command, he obeyed, and was 
questioned and cross-questioned by all three. It 
was very little he could tell them about his 
friend’s plans ; but he acknowleged proudly that 
Phineas had always known this famous man from 
Nazareth, even in childhood, and was one of his 
most devoted followers. 

“ This man Phineas is a traitor to the faith ! ” 
roared Laban. “ He is a dangerous man, and in 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


91 


league with these fellows to do great evil to our 
nation/’ 

The scribe and the rabbi nodded approvingly. 

ct Hear me, now ! ” he cried, sternly. “ Never 
again are you to set foot over his threshold, or 
have any communication whatsoever with him or 
his associates. I make no idle threat; if you dis¬ 
obey me in this, you will have cause to wish you 
had never been born. You may leave us now! ” 

Too surprised and frightened to say a word, 
the child slipped away. To give up his daily 
visit to the carpenter’s house, was to give up 
all that made his life tolerable; while to be 
denied even speaking to his associates, meant 
to abandon all hope of cure. 

But he dared not rebel; obedience to those 
in authority was too thoroughly taught in those 
days to be lightly disregarded. But his uncle 
seemed to fear that his harsh command would 
be eluded in some way, and kept such a strict 
watch over him, that he rarely got beyond the 
borders of the garden by himself. 

One day he was all alone in the grape-arbor, 
looking out into the streets that he longed to 
be in, since their freedom had been denied 
him. 

A little girl passed, carrying one child in her 


92 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


arms, and talking to another who clung to her 
skirts. It was Jerusha. 

Joel threw a green grape at her to attract her 
attention, and then beckoned her mysteriously 
to come nearer. She set the baby on the ground, 
and gave him her bracelet to play with, while she 
listened to a whispered account of his wrongs 
through the latticed arbor. 

“It’s a shame!” she declared indignantly. 
“ I ’ll go right down to the carpenter’s house 
and tell them why you cannot go there any 
more. And I ’ll keep watch on all that hap¬ 
pens, and let you know. I go past here every 
day, and if I have any news, I ’ll toss a pebble 
over the wall and cluck like a hen. Then if 
nobody is watching, you can come to this hole 
in the arbor again.” 

The next day, as Joel was going in great haste 
to the baker’s, whither his aunt had sent him, he 
heard some one behind him calling him to wait. 
In another moment Jerusha was in speaking dis¬ 
tance, nearly bent double with the weight of her 
little brother, whom she was carrying as usual. 

“ There ! ” she said, with a puff of relief, as she 
put him on his own feet. “Wait till I get my 
breath! It’s no easy thing to carry such a load and 
run at the same time! How did you get out ? ” 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


93 


“ There was an errand to be done, and no one 
else to do it,” answered Joel, “ so Aunt sent me.” 

“ Oh, I Ve got such news for you! ” she ex¬ 
claimed. “ Guess what has happened ! Your 
Rabbi Jesus has asked Levi-Matthew to be one 
of His followers, and go around with Him where- 
ever He goes. Think of it! One of those horrid 
tax-gatherers! He settled his accounts and gave 
up his position in the custom-house yesterday. 
And he is getting ready for a great feast. I 
heard the butcher and the wine-dealer both 
telling about the big orders he had given 
them. 

“ All the publicans and low common people that 
are his friends are invited. Yes, and so is your 
friend the carpenter. Think of that, now ! He 
is going to sit down and eat with such people! 
Of course respectable folks will never have any¬ 
thing more to do with him after that! I guess 
your uncle was right about him, after all! ” 

Both the little girfs face and manner expressed 
intense disgust. 

Joel was shocked. “ Oh, are you sure ? ” he 
cried. “You certainly must be mistaken! It 
cannot be so ! ” 

“ I guess I know what I see with my own eyes, 
and hear with my own ears ! ” she retorted, angrily. 


94 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ My father says they are a bad lot. People that 
go with publicans are just as unclean themselves. 
If you know so much more than everybody else, 
I ’ll not trouble myself to run after you with any 
more news. Mistaken, indeed! ” 

With her head held high, and her nose scorn¬ 
fully turned up, she jerked her little brother past 
him, and went quickly around the corner of the 
street. 

The indignation of some of the rabbis knew no 
bounds. “ It has turned out just as I predicted,’’ 
said the scribe to Laban, at supper. “ They are 
nothing but a set of gluttons and wine-bibbers! ” 

There was nothing else talked of during the 
entire meal. How Joel’s blood boiled as he 
listened to their conversation! The food seemed 
to choke him. As they applied one coarse 
epithet after another to his friend Phineas, 
all the kindness and care this man had ever 
given him seemed to rise up before him. 
But when they turned on the Nazarene, all 
the stories Joel had heard in the carpenter’s 
house of His gentle sinless childhood, all the 
tokens he had seen himself of His pure un¬ 
selfish manhood, seemed to cry out against 
such gross injustice. 

It was no light thing for a child to contradict 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


95 


the doctors of the Law, and, in a case of this 
kind, little less than a crime to take the stand 
Joel did. 

But the memory of two faces gave him cour¬ 
age : that of Phineas as it had looked on him 
through all those busy happy hours in the 
carpenter's home; the other face he had 
seen but once, that day of healing in the 
synagogue, — who, having once looked into the 
purity of those eyes, the infinite tenderness of 
that face, could sit calmly by and raise no voice 
against the calumny of his enemies? 

The little cripple was white to the lips, and 
he trembled from head to foot as he stood up 
to speak. 

The scribe lifted up both hands, and turned 
to Laban with a meaning shrug of the shoulders. 
“ To think of finding such heresy in your own 
household ! ” he exclaimed. “ Among your own 
children! ” 

“ He is no child of mine! ” retorted Laban. 
“ Nor shall he stay among them! ” Then he 
turned to Joel. 

“ Boy, take back every word you have just 
uttered! Swear you will renounce this man,— 
this son of perdition, — and never have aught to 
say well of Him again ! ” 


96 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Joel looked around the table, at each face that 
shone out pale and excited in the yellow lamp¬ 
light. His eyes were dilated with fear; his 
heart thumped so in the awful pause that fol¬ 
lowed, that he thought everybody else must 
hear it. 

“ I cannot! ” he said hoarsely. “ Oh, I can¬ 
not !” 

“ Then take yourself out of my sight for¬ 
ever. The doors of this house shall never open 
for you again! ” 

There was a storm of abuse from the angry 
man at this open defiance of his authority. 
With these two cold, stern men to nod ap¬ 
proval at his zealousness, he went to greater 
lengths than he might otherwise have done. 

With one more frightened glance around the 
table, the child hurried out of the room. The 
door into the street creaked after him, and 
Joel limped out into the night, with his uncle’s 
curse ringing in his ears. 


CHAPTER VII. 


HINEAS, going along the beach that 
night, in the early moonlight, towards 
his home, saw a little figure crouched 
in the shadow of a low building beside 
the wharf. It was shaking with violent sobs. 
He went up to the child, and took its hands down 
from its wet face, with a comforting expression 
of pity. Then he started back in surprise. It 
was Joel! 

“ Why, my child! My poor child!” he ex¬ 
claimed, putting his arm around the trembling, 
misshapen form. “ What is the meaning of all 
this?” 

“ Uncle Laban has driven me away from 
home!” sobbed the boy. “He was angry be¬ 
cause you and Rabbi Jesus were invited to 
Levi-Matthew’s feast. He says I have denied 
the faith, and am worse than an infidel. He 
says I am fit only to be cast out with the dogs 
and publicans ! — and — and — ” he ended with a 
wail. “Oh, he sent me away with his curse!” 

7 




98 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Phineas drew him closer, and stroked the head 
on his shoulder in pitying silence. 

“ Fatherless and motherless and lame ! ” the 
boy sobbed bitterly. “ And now, a homeless 
outcast, blighted by a curse, I have been sitting 
here with my feet in the dark water, thinking 
how easy it would be to slip down into it and 
forget; but, Rabbi Phineas, that face will not 
let me, — that face of your friend, — I keep 
seeing it all the time! ” 

Phineas gathered the boy so close in his 
arms that Joel could feel his strong, even 
heart-beats. 

“ My child,” he said solemnly, “ call me no 
more, Rabbi! Henceforth, it is to be father 
Phineas. You shall be to me as my own son! ” 

“ But the curse !” sobbed Joel. “ The curse 
that is set upon me ! It will blight you too! ” 

“ Nay,” was the quiet answer ; “ for it is writ¬ 
ten, ‘ As the bird by wandering, as the swallow 
by flying, so the curse, causeless , shall not come' ” 
But the boy still shook as with a chill. His 
face and hands were burning hot. 

“ Come ! ” said Phineas. He picked him up in 
his strong arms, and carried him down the beach 
to Abigail’s motherly care and comforting. 

“ He will be a long time getting over the 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


99 


shock of this/’ she said to her husband, when he 
was at last soothed to sleep. 

“ Ah, loyal little heart! ” he answered, “ he 
has suffered much for the sake of his friendship 
with us ! ” 

Poor little storm-tossed bark! In the days 
that followed he had reason to bless the boister¬ 
ous winds, that blew him to such a safe and 
happy harbor ! 

Over on the horns of Mount Hattin, the spring 
morning began to shine. The light crept slowly 
down the side of the old mountain, till it 
fell on a little group of men talking earnestly to¬ 
gether. It was the Preacher of Galilee, who had 
just chosen twelve men from among those who 
followed Him to help Him in His ministry. 

They gathered around Him in the fresh moun¬ 
tain dawn, as He pictured the life in store for 
them. Strange they did not quail before it, and 
turn back disheartened. Nay, not strange ! 
For in the weeks they had been with Him, they 
had learned to love Him so, that His “ follow me,” 
that drew them from the toll-gate and fishing- 
boat, was stronger than ties of home and kindred. 

Just about this time, Phineas and Joel were 
starting out from Capernaum to the mountain. 


LcfC. 


100 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Hundreds of people were already on the way; 
people who had come from all parts of Judea, and 
beyond the Jordan. Clouds of dust rose above 
the highway as the travellers trudged along. 

Joel was obliged to walk slowly, so that by the 
time they reached the plain below, a great mul¬ 
titude had gathered. 

“ Let’s get close,” he whispered. He had 
heard that those who barely touched the gar¬ 
ments of the strange Rabbi were made w T hole, 
and it was with the hope that he might steal up 
and touch Him unobserved that he had begged 
Phineas to take him on such a long, painful walk. 

“ There is too great a crowd, now,” answered 
Phineas. “ Let us rest here awhile, and listen. 
Let me lift you up on this big rock, so that you 
can see. ’Sh ! He is speaking ! ” 

Joel looked up, and, for the second time in his 
life, listened to words that thrilled him like a 
trumpet call, — words that through eighteen 
hundred years have not ceased to vibrate; with 
what mighty power they must have fallen when, 
for the first time, they broke the morning still¬ 
ness of those mountain wilds ! 

Joel forgot the press of people about him, for¬ 
got even where he was, as sentence after sen¬ 
tence seemed to lift him out of himself, till he 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


101 


could catch glimpses of lofty living such as he 
had never even dreamed of before. 

Round by round, he seemed to be carried up 
some high ladder of thought by that voice, away 
from all that was common and low and earthly, 
to a summit of infinite love and light. 

Still the voice led on, “ Ye have heard that 
it hath been said, ‘ An eye for an eye and a tooth 
for a tooth.’ ” 

Joel started so violently at hearing his own 
familiar motto, that he nearly lost his balance on 
the rock. 

“ But I say unto you That you resist not evil: 
but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right 
cheek, turn to him the other also. ... Ye have 
heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto 
you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse 
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray 
for them which despitefully use you, and perse¬ 
cute you.” 

Poor little Joel, it was a hard doctrine for 
him to accept! How could he give up his hope 
of revenge, when it had grown with his growth 
till it had come to be as dear as life itself? 

He heard little of the rest of the sermon, for 
through it all the words kept echoing, “ Bless 


102 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


them that curse you ! Do good to them that 
hate you! Pray for them which despitefully use 
you ! ” 

“ Oh, 1 can’t! I can’t! ” he groaned inwardly. 

“ I have found a chance for you to ride home,” 
said Phineas, when the sermon was over, and the 
people began to file down the narrow mountain 
paths. “ But there will be time for you to go to 
Him first, for healing. You have only to ask, 
you know.” 

Joel took an eager step forward, and then 
shrank back guiltily. “ Not now,” he murmured, 
“ some other time.” He could not look into 
those clear eyes and ask a blessing, when he 
knew his heart was black with hate. 

After all his weeks of waiting the opportunity 
had come ; but he dared not let the Sinless One 
look into his soul. 

Phineas began an exclamation of surprise, but 
was interrupted by some one asking him a ques¬ 
tion. Joel took advantage of this to climb up 
behind the man who had offered him a ride. All 
the way home he weighed the two desires in his 
mind, — the hope of healing, and the hope of 
revenge. 

By the time the two guardian fig-trees were in 
sight, he had decided. He would rather go help- 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


103 


less and halting through life than give up his 
cherished purpose. 

But there was no sleep for him that night, 
after he had gone up to his little chamber on the 
roof. He seemed to see that pleading face on 
the mountain-side; it came to him again and 
again, with the words, “ Bless them that curse 
you ! Pray for them that despitefully use you ! ” 

All night he fought against yielding to it. 
Time and again he turned over on his bed, and 
closed his eyes; but it would not let him alone. 

He thought of Jacob wrestling with the angel 
till day-break, and knew in his heart that the 
sweet spirit of forgiveness striving with his 
selfish nature was some heavenly impulse from 
another world. 

At last when the cock-crowing commenced at 
dawn, and the stars were beginning to fade, he 
drew up his crooked little body, and knelt with 
his face to the kindling east. 

“ Father in heaven,” he prayed softly, “ bless 
mine enemy Rehum, and forgive all my sins,— 
fully and freely as I now forgive the wrong he 
has done to me.” 

A feeling of light-heartedness and peace, such 
as he had never known before, stole over him. 
He could not settle himself to sleep, though worn 
out with his nights long vigil. 


104 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Hastily slipping on his clothes, he tiptoed 
down the stairs, and limped, bare-headed, down 
to the beach. The lake shimmered and glowed 
under the faint rose and gray of the sky like a 
deep opal. The early breeze blew the hair back 
from his pale face with a refreshing coolness. 

It seemed to him the world had never looked 
one half so beautiful before, as he stood there. 

A firm tread on the gravel made him turn 
partly around. A man was coming up the 
beach; it was the friend of Phineas. As if 
drawn by some uncontrollable impulse, Joel 
started to meet Him, an unspoken prayer in his 
pleading little face. 

Not a word w r as said. For one little instant 
Joel stood there by the shining sea, his hand held 
close in the loving hand of the world’s Redeemer. 
For one little instant he looked up into His face; 
then the man passed on. 

Joel covered his face with his hands, seeming 
to hear the still small voice that spoke to the 
prophet out of the whirlwind. 

“ He is the Christ! ” he whispered reverently, 
— “ He is the Christ! ” 

In his exalted feeling all thought of a cure had 
left him ; but as he walked on down the beach, 
he noticed that he no longer limped. He was 
moving along with strong, quick strides. He 







“ NOT A WORD WAS SAID 
























JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 105 

shook himself and threw back his shoulders; 
there was no pain in the movement. He passed 
his hands over his back and down his limbs. 

Oh, he was straight and strong and sinewy! 
He seemed a stranger to himself, as running and 
leaping, then stopping to look down and feel his 
limbs again, he ran madly on. 

Suddenly he cast his garments aside and dived 
into the lake. Before his injury, he had been 
able to swim like a fish, now he reached out with 
long powerful strokes that sent him darting 
through the cold water with a wonderful sense 
of exhilaration. 

Then he dressed again, and went on running 
and leaping and climbing till he was exhausted, 
and his first wild delirious joy began to subside 
into a deep quiet thankfulness. Then he went 
home, radiant in the happiness of his new-found 
cure. 

But more than the mystery of the miracle, 
more than the joy of the healing, was the re¬ 
membrance of that moment, that one little 
moment, when he felt the clasp of the Master’s 
hand, and seemed wrapped about with the bound¬ 
less love of God. 

From that moment, he lived but to serve and 
to follow Him. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


IGH up among the black lava crags 
of Perea stood the dismal fortress 
of Macherus. Behind its close prison 
bars a restless captive groped his way 
back and forth in a dungeon cell. Sometimes, at 
long intervals, he was given such liberty as a 
chained eagle might have, when he was led up 
into one of the towers of the gloomy keep, and 
allowed to look down, down into the bottomless 
gorges surrounding it. For months he had 
chafed in the darkness of his underground 
dungeon; escape was impossible. 

It was John Baptist, brought from the wild, 
free life of the desert to the tortures of the 
“ Black Castle.” Here he lay at the mercy 
of Herod Antipas, and death might strike at 
any moment. More than once, the whimsical 
monarch had sent for him, as he sat at his 
banquets, to be the sport of the passing 
hour. 



JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 107 

The lights, the color, the flash of gems may 
have dazzled his eyes for a brief space, accus¬ 
tomed as they were to the midnight darkness 
of his cell; but his keen vision saw, under 
the paint and purple of royal apparel, the cor¬ 
rupt life of king and court. 

Pointing his stern, accusing finger at the 
uneasy king, he cried, “ It is not lawful for 
thee to have thy brother's wife ! ” With words 
that stung like hurtling arrows, he laid bare 
the blackened, beastly life that sought to hide 
its foulness under royal ermine. 

Antipas cowered before him; and while he 
would gladly have been freed from a man who 
had such power over him, he dared not lift a 
finger against the fearless, unflinching Baptist. 

But the guilty Herodias bided her time, with 
blood-thirsty impatience; his life should pay 
the penalty of his bold speech. 

Meanwhile he waited in his cell, with nothing 
but memories to relieve the tediousness of the 
long hours. Over and over again he lived 
those scenes of his strange life in the desert, — 
those days of his preparation, — the preaching 
to the multitudes, the baptizing at the ford of 
the Jordan. 

He wondered if his words still lived; if any 


108 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


of his followers still believed on him. But more 
than all, he wondered what had become of that 
One on whom he had seen the spirit of God 
descending out of heaven in the form of a dove. 

“ Where art Thou now ? ” he cried. “ If Thou 
art the Messiah, why dost Thou not set up Thy 
kingdom, and speedily give Thy servant his 
liberty ? ” The empty room rang often with 
that cry; but the hollow echo of his own 
words was the only answer. 

One day the door of his cell creaked back far 
enough to admit two men, and then shut again, 
leaving them in total darkness. In that momen ¬ 
tary flash of light, he recognized two old fol¬ 
lowers of his, Timeus bar Joram and Benjamin 
the potter. 

With a cry of joy he groped his way toward 
them, and clung to their friendly hands. 

“ How did you manage to penetrate these 
Roman-guarded walls ? ” he asked, in astonish¬ 
ment. 

‘‘I knew the warden,” answered Benjamin. 
“ A piece of silver conveniently closes his eyes 
to many things. But we must hasten! Our 
time is limited.” 

They had much to tell of the outside world. 
Pilate had just given special offence, by appro- 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 109 

priating part of the treasure of the Temple, 
derived from the Temple tax, to defray the 
cost of great conduits he had begun, with 
which to supply Jerusalem with water. 

Stirred up by the priests and rabbis, the 
people besieged the government house, crying 
loudly that the works be given up. Armed 
with clubs, numbers of soldiers in plain clothes 
surrounded the great mob, and killed so many of 
the people that the wildest excitement prevailed 
throughout all Judea and Galilee. 

There was a cry for a national uprising to 
avenge the murder. 

“ They only need a leader! ” exclaimed John. 
“ Where is He for whom I was but a voice cry¬ 
ing in the wilderness ? Why does He not show 
Himself?” 

“We have just come from the village of 
Nam,” said Timeus bar Joram. “We saw Him 
stop a funeral procession and raise a widow’s 
son to life. He was followed by a motley 
throng whom He had healed of all sorts of 
diseases; and there were twelve men whom He 
had chosen as life-long companions. 

“We questioned some of them closely, and 
they gave us marvellous reports of the things 
He had done.” 


110 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Is it not strange,” asked Benjamin the 
potter, “ that having such power He still delays 
to establish His kingdom ? ” 

The captive prophet made no answer for awhile. 
Then he groped in the thick darkness till his hand 
rested heavily on Benjamin’s arm. 

“ Go back, and say that John Baptist asks, 
‘ Art Thou the Coming One, or must we look for 
another ?’ ” 

Days passed before the devoted friends found 
themselves once more inside the prison walls. 
They had had a weary journey over rough hills 
and rocky by-paths. 

“ What did He say ? ” demanded the prisoner, 
eagerly. 

“ Go and tell John what ye saw and heard: 
that the blind receive sight; the lame walk ; the 
lepers are cleansed ; the deaf hear; the dead are 
raised ; and the poor have the gospel preached 
unto them.” 

The man stood up, his long hair hanging to 
his shoulder, his hand uplifted, and his eyes 
dilated like a startled deer that has caught the 
sound of a coming step. 

“ The fulfilment of the words of Isaiah! ” he 
cried. “For he hath said, ‘ Your God will come 
and save you. Then the eyes of the blind 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Ill 


shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall 
be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap 
as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing ! 9 
Yea, he hath bound up the broken-hearted; and 
he shall yet ‘ proclaim liberty to the captives, 
and the opening of the prison to them that 
are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of 
the Lord! ’ ” 

Then with both hands clasped high above his 
head, he made the prison ring with the cry, 
u The kingdom is at hand ! The kingdom is at 
hand ! I shall soon be free ! ” 

Not long after that, the castle blazed with the 
lights of another banquet. The faint aroma 
of wines, mingled with the heavy odor of count¬ 
less flowers, could not penetrate the grim prison 
walls. Nor could the gay snatches of song and 
the revelry of the feast. No sound of applause 
reached the prisoner’s ear, when the daughter 
of Herodias danced before the king. 

Sitting in darkness while the birthday ban¬ 
queters held high carnival, he heard the heavy 
tramp of soldiers’ feet coming down the stairs 
to his dungeon. The great bolts shot back, 
the rusty hinges turned, and a lantern flickered 
its light in his face, as he stood up to receive his 
executioners. 


112 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


A little while later his severed head was taken 
on a charger to the smiling dancing girl. She 
stifled a shriek when she saw it; but the wicked 
Herodias looked at it with a gleam of triumph in 
her treacherous black eyes. 

When the lights were out, and the feasters 
gone, two men came in at the warden’s bid¬ 
ding, — two men with heavy hearts, and voices 
that shook a little when they spoke to each other. 
They were Timeus and Benjamin. Silently they 
lifted the body of their beloved master, and 
carried it away for burial; and if a tear or 
two found an unaccustomed path down their 
bearded cheeks, no one knew it, under cover 
of the darkness. 

So, out of the Black Castle of Macherus, out 
of the prison-house of a mortal body, the 
white-souled prophet of the wilderness went 
forth at last into liberty. 

For him, the kingdom was indeed at hand. 

Meanwhile in the upper country, Phineas was 
following his friend from village to village. He 
had dropped his old familiar form of address, so 
much was he impressed by the mysterious power 
he saw constantly displayed. 

Now when he spoke of the man who had been 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 113 

both friend and playfellow, it was almost rever¬ 
ently that he gave Him the title of Master. 

It was with a heavy heart that Joel watched 
them go away. He, too, longed to follow; but 
he knew that unless he took the place at the 
bench, Phineas could not be free to go. 

Gratitude held him to his post. No, not grati¬ 
tude alone ; he was learning the Master’s own 
spirit of loving self-sacrifice. As he dropped 
the plumb-line over his work, he measured 
himself by that perfect life, and tried to 
straighten himself to its unbending standard. 

He had his reward in the look of pleasure 
that he saw on the carpenter’s face when 
Phineas came in, unexpectedly, one day, dusty 
and travel-stained. 

“ How much you have accomplished ! ” he 
said in surprise. “ You have filled my place 
like a grown man.” 

Joel stretched his strong arms with a slight 
laugh. “ It is a pleasure to work now,” he said. 
“ It seems so queer never to have a pain, or that 
worn-out feeling of weakness that used to be 
always with me. At first I was often afraid it 
was all a happy dream, and could not last. I am 
getting used to it now. Where is the Master ? ” 
Joel asked, as Phineas turned towards the house, 
s 


114 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ He is the guest of Simon. He will be here 
some days, my son. I know you wish to be with 
Him as much as possible, so I shall not expect 
your help as long as He stays.” 

“ If I could only do something for Him ! ” 
Was Joel’s constant thought during the next few 
days. Once he took a coin from the little money 
bag that held his hoarded savings — a coin that 
was to have helped buy his revenge — and 
bought the ripest, juiciest pear he could find in 
the market. Often he brought Him water, fresh 
and cold from the well when He looked tired and 
warm from His unceasing work. 

Wherever the Master turned, there, close be¬ 
side Him, was a beaming little face, so full of love 
and childish sympathy that it must have brought 
more refreshment to His thirsty soul than either 
the choice fruit or the cooling water. 

One evening after a busy day, when He had 
talked for hours to the people on the seashore who 
had gathered around the boat in which He sat, 
He sent away the multitude. 

“ Let us pass over unto the other side,” He 
said. 

Joel slipped up to Andrew, who was busily 
arranging their sails. “ Let me go, too ! ” he 
whispered pleadingly. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


115 


"Well,” assented the man, carelessly, “You 
can make yourself useful, I suppose. Will you 
hand me that rope ? ” 

Joel sprang to obey. Presently the boat 
pushed away from the shore, and the town, with 
its tumult and its twinkling lights, was soon left 
far behind. 

The sea was like glass, so calm and unruffled 
that every star above could look down and see 
its unbroken reflection in the dark water below. 

Joel, in the hinder part of the ship, lay back 
in his seat with a sigh of perfect enjoyment. 
The smooth gliding motion of the boat rested 
him; the soft splash of the water soothed his 
excited brain. He had seen his Uncle Laban 
that afternoon among other of the scribes and 
Pharisees, and heard him declare that Beelzebub 
alone was responsible for the wonders they 
witnessed. 

Joel’s indignation flared up again at the 
memory. He looked down at the Master, who 
had fallen asleep on a pillow, and wondered how 
anybody could possibly believe such evil things 
about Him. 

It was cooler out where they were now. He 
wondered if he ought not to lay some covering 
over the sleeping form. He took off the outer 


116 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


mantle that he wore, and bent forward to lay it 
over the Master’s feet. But he drew back tim¬ 
idly, afraid of wakening Him. “I ’ll wait 
awhile,” he said to himself, folding the garment 
across his kness in readiness. 

Several times he reached forward to lay it over 
Him, and each time drew back. Then he fell 
asleep himself. 

From its situation in the basin of the hills, the 
Galilee is subject to sudden and furious storms. 
The winds, rushing down the heights, meet and 
clash above the water, till the waves run up like 
walls, then sink again into seething whirlpools of 
danger. 

Joel, falling asleep in a dead calm, awoke to 
find the ship rolling and tossing and half-full of 
water. The lightning’s track w^as followed so 
closely by the crash of thunder, there was not 
even pause enough between to take one terrified 
gasp. 

Still the Master slept. Joel, drenched to the 
skin, clung to the boat’s side, expecting that every 
minute would be his last. It was so dark and 
wild and awful! How helpless they w r ere, buf- 
fetted about in the fury of the storm! 

As wave after wave beat in, some of the men 
could no longer control their fear. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


117 


“ Master ! ” they called to the sleeping man, as 
they bent over Him in terror. “ Carest Thou not 
that we perish ? ” 

He heard the cry for help. The storm could 
not waken Him from His deep sleep of exhaustion, 
but at the first despairing human voice, He was 
up, ready to help. 

Looking up at the midnight blackness of the 
sky, and down at the wild waste of waters, He 
stretched out His hand. 

a Peace! ” he commanded in a deep voice. 
“ Be still! ” The storm sank to earth as suddenly 
as a death-stricken raven ; a great calm spread over 
the face of the waters. The silent stars shone 
out in their places ; the silent sea mirrored back 
their glory at His feet. 

The men huddled fearfully together. u What 
manner of man is this ? ” they asked, one of 
another. “ Even the wind and the sea obey 
Him ! ” 

Joel, looking up at the majestic form, standing 
so quietly by the railing, thought of the voice 
that once rang out over the night of Creation 
with the command, “ Let there be light! ” At 
its mere bidding light had flowed in across the 
darkness of primeval night. 


118 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Just so had this voice thrilled the storm with 
its “ Peace ! Be still! ” into utter calm. 

The child crouched at His feet, burying his 
face in his mantle, and whispering, in awe and 
adoration, “ He is the Christ! He is the son of 
God!” 


CHAPTER IX. 



FTER that night of the voyage to 
m the Gadarenes, Joel ceased to be 
surprised at the miracles he daily 
witnessed. Even when the little 
daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, 
was called back to life, it did not seem so won¬ 
derful to him as the stilling of the tempest. 

Many a night after Phineas had gone away 
again with the Master to other cities, Joel used 
to go down to the beach, and stand looking across 
the water as he recalled that scene. 

The lake had always been an interesting place 
to him at night. He liked to watch the fishermen 
as they flashed their blazing torches this way and 
that. A sympathetic thrill ran through him as 
they sighted their prey, and raised their bare 
sinewy arms to fling the net or fly the spear. 

But after that morning of healing, and that 
night of tempest, it seemed to be a sacred 
place, to be visited only on still nights, when 


120 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


the town slept, and heaven bent nearer in the 
starlight to the quiet earth. 

The time of the Passover was drawing near, — 
the time that Joel had been looking forward to 
since Phineas had promised him a year ago that 
he should go to Jerusalem. 

The twelve disciples who had been sent out to 
all the little towns through Galilee, to teach the 
things they had themselves been taught, and 
work miracles in the name of Him who had sent 
them, began to come slowly back. They had an 
encouraging report to bring of their work; but it 
was shadowed by the news they had heard of the 
murder of John Baptist. 

Joel joined them as soon as they came into 
Capernaum, and walked beside Phineas as the 
footsore travellers pressed on a little farther 
towards Simon’s house. 

“ When are we going to start for Jerusalem?” 
was his first eager question. 

Phineas looked searchingly into his face as he 
replied, “ Would you be greatly disappointed, my 
son, not to go this year ? ” 

Joel looked perplexed; it was such an un¬ 
heard of thing for Phineas to miss going up 
to the Feast of the Passover. 

“ These are evil times, my Joel/’ he explained. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


121 


“John Baptist has just been beheaded. The 
Master has many enemies among those in high 
places. It would be like walking into a lion’s 
den for Him to go up to Jerusalem. 

“ Even here He is not safe from the hatred of 
Antipas, and after a little rest will pass over 
into the borders of the tetrarch Philip. We 
have no wish to leave Him!” 

“ Oh, why should He be persecuted so ? ” asked 
Joel, looking with tear-dimmed eyes at the man 
walking in advance of them, and talking in low 
earnest tones to John, who walked beside Him., 

“ You have been with Him so much, father 
Phineas. Have you ever known Him to do 
anything to make these men His enemies?” 

“ Yes,” said Phineas. “ He has drawn the 
people after Him until they are jealous of His 
popularity. He upsets their old traditions, and 
teaches a religion that ignores some of the 
Laws of Moses. I can easily see why they 
hate Him so. They see Him at such a long 
distance from themselves, they can not under¬ 
stand Him. Healing on the Sabbath, eating 
with publicans and sinners, disregarding the 
little customs and ceremonies that in all ages 
have set apart our people as a chosen race, 
are crimes in their eyes. 


122 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ If they only could get close enough to under¬ 
stand Him ; to see that His pure life needs no cere¬ 
monies of multiplied hand-washings; that it is 
His broad love for His fellow-men that makes Him 
stoop to the lowest classes, — I am sure they could 
not do otherwise than love Him. 

“ Blind fanatics ! They would put to death the 
best man that ever lived, because He is so much 
broader and higher than they that the little 
measuring line of their narrow creed cannot 
compass Him! ” 

“ Is He never going to set up His kingdom ?” 
asked Joel. “ Does He never talk about it?” 

“ Yes,” said Phineas; “ though we are often 
puzzled by what He says, and ask ourselves His 
meaning.” 

They had reached the house by this time, 
and as Simon led the way to its hospitable 
door, Phineas said, “ Enter with them, my lad, 
if you wish. I must go on to my little family, 
but will join you soon.” 

To Joel’s great pleasure, he found they were to 
cross the lake at once, to the little fishing port of 
Bethsaida. It was only six miles across. 

“We have hardly had time to eat,” said Andrew 
to Joel, as they walked along towards the boat. 
“I will be glad to get away to some desert place, 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


123 


where we may have rest from the people that are 
always pushing and clamoring about us.” 

“ How long before you start?” asked Joel. 

“ In a very few minutes/’ answered Andrew; 
“for the boat is in readiness.” 

Joel glanced from the street above the beach to 
the water’s edge, as if calculating the distance. 

“ Don’t go without me,” he said as, breaking 
into a run, he dashed up the beach at his ut¬ 
most speed. He was back again in a surpris¬ 
ingly quick time, with a cheap little basket in 
his hand ; he was out of breath with his rapid 
run. 

“ Did n’t I go fast ? ” he panted. “ I could not 
have done that a few weeks ago. Oh, it feels so 
good to be able to run when I please ! It is like 
flying.” 

He lifted the cover of the basket. “ See! ” 
he said. “ I thought the Master might be 
hungry; but I had no time to get anything 
better. I had to stop at the first stall I came 
to.” 

At the same time the boat went gliding out 
into the water with its restful motion, thousands 
of people were pouring out of the villages on 
foot, and hurrying on around the lake, ahead 
of them. 


124 


JOEL*. A BOY OF GALILEE. 


The boat passed up a narrow winding creek, 
away from the sail-dotted lake; its green banks 
seemed to promise the longed-for quiet and rest. 
But there in front of them waited the crowds they 
had come so far to avoid. 

They had brought their sick for healing. They 
needed to be helped and taught; they were “ as 
sheep without a shepherd ! ” He could not refuse 
them. 

Joel found no chance to offer the food he had 
bought so hastily with another of his hoarded 
coins, — the coins that were to have purchased 
his revenge. 

As the day wore on, he heard the disciples ask 
that the multitudes might be sent away. 

“ It would take two hundred pennyworth of 
bread to feed them,” said Philip, “ and even that 
would not be enough.” 

Andrew glanced over the great crowds and 
stroked his beard thoughtfully. “ There is a 
lad here which hath five barley loaves and two 
small fishes, but what are they among so 
many ? ” 

Joel hurried forward and held out his basket 
with its little store, — five flat round loaves of 
bread, not much more than one hungry man 
could eat, and two dried fishes. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


125 


He hardly knew what to expect as the people 
were made to sit down on the grass in orderly 
ranks of fifties. 

His eyes grew round with astonishment as 
the Master took the bread, gave thanks, and 
then passed it to the disciples, who, in turn, 
distributed it among the people. Then the two 
little fishes were handed around in the same 
way. 

Joel turned to Phineas, who had joined them 
some time ago. “ Do you see that?” he asked 
excitedly. “ They have been multiplied a thou¬ 
sand fold ! ” 

Phineas smiled. “ We drop one tiny grain of 
wheat into the earth,” he said, “ and when it 
grows and spreads and bears dozens of other 
grains on its single stalk, we are not astonished. 
When the Master but does in an instant, what 
Nature takes months to do, we cry, ‘ a miracle ! ’ 
‘ Men are more wont to be astonished at the sun’s 
eclipse, than at its daily rising,’”he quoted, re* 
membering his conversation with the old travel¬ 
ler, on his way to Nathan ben Obed’s. 

A feeling of exaltation seized the people as 
they ate the mysterious bread; it seemed that 
the days of miraculous manna had come again. 
By the time they had all satisfied their hunger, 


126 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


and twelve basketfuls of the fragments had been 
gathered up, they were ready to make Him their 
king. The restlessness of the times had taken 
possession of them ; the burning excitement must 
find vent in some way, and with one accord they 
demanded Him as their leader. 

Joel wondered why He should refuse. Surely 
no other man he had ever known could have 
resisted such an appeal. 

The perplexed fisherman, at Jesus’s command, 
turned their boat homeward without Him. To 
their simple minds it seemed that He had made 
a mistake in resisting the homage forced upon 
Him by the people; they longed for the time 
to come when they should be recognized as the 
honored officials in the new kingdom. Many a 
dream of future power and magnificence must 
have come to them in the still watches of the 
night, as they drifted home in the white light 
of the Passover moon. 

Many a time in the weeks that followed, Joel 
slipped away to his favorite spot on the beech, 
a flat rock half hidden by a clump of oleander 
bushes. Here, with his feet idly dangling in 
the ripples, he looked out over the water, and 
recalled the scenes he had witnessed there. 

It seemed so marvellous to him that the 


JOEL*. A BOY OF GALILEE. 


127 


Master could have ever walked on those shin¬ 
ing waves; and yet he had seen Him that night 
after the feeding of the multitudes. He had 
seen, with his own frightened eyes, the Master 
walk calmly towards the boat across the un¬ 
steady water, and catch up the sinking Peter, 
who had jumped overboard to meet Him. It 
grieved and fretted the boy that this man, 
of God-given power and such sweet unselfish 
spirit, could be so persistently misunderstood by 
the people. He could think of nothing else. 

He had not been with the crowds that pressed 
into the synagogue the Sabbath after the thou¬ 
sands had been fed ; but Phineas came home with 
grim lips and knitted brows, and told him about 
it. 

“ The Master knew they followed Him because 
of the loaves and fishes,” he said. “ He told 
them so. 

a When we came out of the door, I could not 
help looking up at the lintel on which is carved 
the pot of manna ; for when they asked Him for a 
sign that they might believe Him, saying, ‘ Our 
fathers ate manna in the wilderness ! 9 He an¬ 
swered : ‘ I am the bread of life ! Ye have seen 
me, and yet believe not ! 9 

“ While He talked there was a murmuring all 


128 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


over the house against Him, because He said that 
He had come down from heaven. Your uncle 
Laban was there. I heard him say scornfully: 
‘ Is not this the son of Joseph, whose father and 
mother we know ? How doth He now say, “ I am 
come down out of heaven” V Then he laughed 
a mocking little laugh, and nudged the man w r ho 
stood next to him. There are many like him; 
I could feel a spirit of prejudice and persecution 
in the very air. Many who have professed to be 
His friends have turned against Him.” 

While Phineas was pouring out his anxious 
forebodings to his wife and Joel, the Master was 
going homeward with His chosen twelve. 

“ Would ye also go away ? ” He asked wistfully 
of His companions, as He noted the cold, disap¬ 
proving looks of many who had only the day be¬ 
fore been fed by Him, and who now openly 
turned their backs on Him. 

Simon Peter gave a questioning glance into 
the faces of his companions; then he pressed a 
step nearer. “ Lord, to whom shall we go ? ” he 
answered impulsively. “ Thou hast the words of 
eternal life. And we have believed, and know 
that Thou art the Holy One of God.” 

The others nodded their assent, all but one. 
Judas Iscariot clutched the money bags he held, 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


129 


and looked off across the lake, to avoid the 
searching eyes that were fixed upon him. 

These honest Galileans were too simple to sus¬ 
pect others of dark designs, yet they had never 
felt altogether free with this stranger from Judea. 
He had never seemed entirely one of them. 
They did not see in his crafty quiet manners, 
the sheep’s clothing that hid his wolfish nature ; 
but they could feel his lack of sympathetic 
enthusiasm. 

He had been one of those who followed only 
for the loaves and fishes of a temporal kingdom, 
and now, in his secret soul, he was sorry he had 
joined a cause in whose final success he was be¬ 
ginning to lose faith. 

The sun went down suddenly that night be¬ 
hind a heavy cloud, as a gathering storm began 
to lash the Galilee and rock the little boats 
anchored at the landings. 

The year of popularity was at an end. 


9 


CHAPTER X. 



ABIGAIL sat just inside the door, turn¬ 
ip ing the noisy hand-mill that ground 
out the next day’s supply of flour. 

The rough mill-stones grated so 
harshly on each other that she did not hear the 
steps coming up the path. A shadow falling 
across the door-way made her look up. 

“ You are home early, my Phineas,” she said, 
with a smile. “ Well, I shall soon have your 
supper ready. Joel has gone to the market for 
some honey and — 

u Nay ! I have little wish to eat,” he inter¬ 
rupted, “ but I have much to say to you. Come ! 
the work can wait.” 

Abigail put the mill aside, and brushing the 
flour from her hands, sat down on the step 
beside him, wondering much at his troubled 
face. 

He plunged into his subject abruptly. “ The 
Master is soon going away,” he said, “ that those 
in the uttermost parts of Galilee may be taught 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


131 


of Him. And He would fain have others beside 
the twelve He has chosen to go with Him on His 
journey.” 

“ And you wish to go too ? ” she questioned, as 
he paused. 

“ Yes ! How can I do otherwise ? And yet 
how can I leave you and the little ones alone in 
these troubled times ? You cannot think how 
great the danger is. Remember how many hor¬ 
rors we have lately heard. The whole country is 
a smouldering volcano, ready to burst into an 
eruption at any moment. A leader has only to 
arise, and all Israel will take up arms against the 
powers that trample us under foot.” 

“ Is not this prophet, Jesus, He who is to save 
Israel ? ” asked Abigail. “ Is He not even now 
making ready to establish His kingdom ? ” 

“ I do not understand Him at all! ” said 
Phineas, sadly. “ He does talk of a kingdom in 
which we are all to have a part; but He never 
seems to be working to establish it. He spends 
all His time in healing diseases and forgiving 
penitent sinners, and telling us to love our 
neighbors. 

“Then, again, why should He go down to the 
beach, and choose for His confidential friends 
just simple fishermen. They have neither influ- 


132 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


ence nor money. As for the choice of that publi¬ 
can Levi-Matthew, it has brought disgrace on the 
whole movement. He does not seem to know 
how to sway the popular feeling. I believe He 
might have had the support of the foremost men 
of the nation, if He had approached them 
differently. 

“ He shocks them by setting aside laws they 
w r ould lay down their lives rather than violate. 
He associates with those they consider unclean ; 
and all His miracles cannot make them forget 
how boldly He has rebuked them for hypocrisy 
and unrighteousness. They never will come to 
His support now ; and I do not see how a new 
government can be formed without their help/’ 

Abigail laid her hand on his, her dark eyes 
glowing with intense earnestness, as she an¬ 
swered : “ What need is there of armies and 

human hands to help ? 

“ Where were the hosts of Pharaoh when our 
fathers passed through the Red Sea? Was there 
bloodshed and fighting there ? 

“ Who battled for us when the walls of Jericho 
fell down ? Whose hand smote the Assyrians at 
Sennacherib ? Is the Lord’s arm shortened that 
He cannot save ? 

“ Why may not His prophet speak peace to 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 133 

Jerusalem as easily as He did the other night to 
the stormy sea ? Why may not His power be 
multiplied even as the loaves and fishes ? 

“ Why may not the sins and backslidings of the 
people be healed as well as Joel’s lameness; 
or the glory of the nation be quickened into a 
new life, as speedily as He raised the daughter of 
Jairus ? 

“ Isaiah called Him the Prince of Peace. What 
are all these lessons, if not to teach us that the 
purposes of God do not depend on humaii hands 
to work out their fulfilment ? ” 

Her low voice thrilled him with its inspiring 
questions, and he looked down into her rapt face 
with a feeling of awe. 

“Abigail,” he said softly, “‘my source of joy,* 
— you are rightly named. You have led me out 
of the doubts that have been my daily torment. 
I see now, why He never incites us to rebel 
against the yoke of Caesar. In the fulness of 
time He will free us with a breath. 

“ How strange it should have fallen to my lot 
to have been His playmate and companion. My 
wonder is not that He is the Messiah ; but that I 
should have called Him friend, all these years, 
unknowing.” 

“ How long do you expect to be away ? ” she 


134 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


asked, after a pause, suddenly returning to the 
first subject. 

“ Several months, perhaps. There is no telling 
what insurrections and riots may arise, all through 
this part of the country. Since the murder of 
John Baptist, Herod has come back to his court 
in Tiberias. I dislike to leave you here alone.” 

Abigail, too, looked grave, and neither spoke 
for a little while. “ I have it! ” she exclaimed at 
length, with a pleased light in her eyes. “ I 
have often wished I could make a long visit in 
the home of my girlhood. The few days I have 
spent in my father’s house, those few times I 
have gone with you to the feasts, have been so 
short and unsatisfactory. Can I not take Joel 
and the children to Bethany ? Neither father nor 
mother has ever seen little Ruth, and we could 
be so safe and happy there till your return.” 

“ Why did I not come to you before with my 
worries ? ” asked Phineas. “ How easily you make 
the crooked places straight! ” 

Just then the children came running back from 
the market. Abigail went into the house with 
the provisions they had brought, leaving their 
father to tell them of the coming separation and 
the long journey they had planned. 

A week later, Phineas stood at the city gate, 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


135 


watching a little company tile southward down 
the highway. He had hired two strong, gayly- 
caparisoned mules from the owner of the caravan. 
Abigail rode on one, holding little Ruth in her 
arms; Joel mounted the other, with Jesse cling¬ 
ing close behind him. 

Abigail, thinking of the joyful welcome await¬ 
ing her in her old home, and the children happy 
in the novelty of the journey, set out gayly. 

But Phineas, thinking of the dangers by the 
way, and filled with many forebodings, watched 
their departure with a heavy heart. 

At the top of a little rise in the road, they 
turned to look back and wave their hands. In 
a moment more they were out of sight. Then 
Phineas, grasping his staff more firmly, turned 
away, and started on foot in the other direc¬ 
tion, to follow to the world’s end, if need be, 
the friend who had gone on before. 

It was in the midst of the barley harvest. 
Jesse had never been in the country before. 
For the first time, Nature spread for him her 
great picture-book of field and forest and vine¬ 
yard, while Abigail read to him the stories. 

First on one side of the road, then the other, 
she pointed out some spot and told its history. 

Here was Dothan, where Joseph went out to 


136 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


see his brothers, dressed in his coat of many 
colors. There was Mount Gilboa, where the 
arrows of the Philistines wounded Saul, and 
he fell on his own sword and killed himself. 
Shiloh, wdiere Hannah brought little Samuel 
to give him to the Lord; where the Prophet 
Eli, so old that his eyes were too dim to see, 
sat by the gate waiting for news from the army, 
and when word was brought back that his two 
sons were dead, and the Ark of the Covenant 
taken, here it was that he fell backward from 
his seat, and his neck was broken. 

All these she told, and many more. Then she 
pointed to the gleaners in the fields, and told the 
children to notice how carefully Israel still kept 
the commandment given so many centuries 
before: “When ye reap the harvest of your 
land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners 
of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the 
gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not 
glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather 
every grape of thy vineyard, thou shalt leave 
them for the poor and the stranger.” 

At Jacob’s well, where they stopped to rest, 
Joel lifted Jesse up, and let him look over the 
curb. The child almost lost his balance in 
astonishment, when his own wondering little 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 137 

face looked up at him from the deep well. He 
backed away from it quickly, and looked care¬ 
fully into the cup of water Joel handed him, 
for more than a minute, before he ventured to 
drink. 

The home to which Abigail was going was a 
wealthy one. Her father, Reuben, was a gold¬ 
smith, and for years had been known in Jeru¬ 
salem not only for the beautifully wrought 
ornaments and precious stones that he sold in 
his shop near the Temple, but for his rich 
gifts to the poor. 

“Reuben the Charitable, 1 ” he was called, and 
few better deserved the name. His business 
took him every day to the city; but his home 
was in the little village of Bethany, two miles 
away. It was one of the largest in Bethany, 
and seemed like a palace to the children, 
when compared to the humble little home 
in Capernaum. 

Joel only looked around with admiring eyes ; 
but Jesse walked about, laying curious little 
fingers on everything he passed. The bright 
oriental curtains, the soft cushions and the 
costly hangings, he smoothed and patted. Even 
the silver candlesticks and the jewelled cups 
on the side table were picked up and exam- 


138 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


ined, when his mother happened to have her 
back turned. 

There were no pictures in the house; the 
Law forbade. But there were several mirrors 
of bright polished metal, and Jesse never tired 
of watching his own reflection in them. 

Ruth stayed close beside her mother. “ She is 
a ray of God’s own sunshine,” said her grand¬ 
mother, as she took her in her arms for the 
first time. The child, usually afraid of stran¬ 
gers, saw in Rebecca’s face a look so like her 
mother’s that she patted the wrinkled cheeks 
with her soft fingers. From that moment her 
grandmother was her devoted slave. 

Jesse was not long in finding the place he 
held in his grandfather’s heart. The old man, 
whose sons had all died years before, seemed 
to centre all his hopes on this son of his only 
daughter. He kept Jesse with him as much as 
possible; his happiest hours were when he 
had the child on his knee, teaching him the 
prayers and precepts and proverbs that he 
knew would be a lamp to his feet in later 
years. 

“ Nay! do not punish the child ! ” he said, one 
morning when Jesse had been guilty of some 
disobedience. Abigail went on stripping the 



“ ‘ WE TALKED LATE 























JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 139 

leaves from an almond switch she just had 
broken off. 

“ Why, father/’ she said, with a smile, 61 1 have 
often seen you punish my brothers for such dis¬ 
obedience, and have as often heard you say that 
one of Solomon’s wisest sayings is, ‘ Chasten thy 
son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare 
for his crying.’ Jesse misses his father’s firm 
rule, and is getting sadly spoiled.” 

“ That is all true, my daughter,” he acknowl¬ 
edged ; “ still I shall not stay here to witness his 
punishment.” 

Abigail used the switch as she had intended. 
The boy had overheard the conversation, and 
the cries that reached his grandfather as he 
rode off to the city were unusually loud and 
appealing. They may have had something to 
do with the package the good man carried 
home that night, — cakes and figs and a gay 
little turban more befitting a young prince 
than the son of a carpenter. 

“ Who lives across the street? ” asked Joel, the 
morning after their arrival. 

“ Two old friends of mine,” answered Abigail. 
“ They came to see me last night as soon as 
they heard I had arrived. You children were 
all asleep. We talked late, for they wanted to 


140 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


hear all I could tell them of Rabbi Jesus. He 
was here last year, and Martha said He and her 
brother Lazarus became fast friends. Ah, there 
is Lazarus now! — that young man just coming 
out of the house. He is a scribe, and goes up 
to write in one of the rooms of the Temple 
nearly every day. 

“ Mary says some of the copies of the Scriptures 
he has made are the most beautifully written 
that she has ever seen.” 

“ See! ” exclaimed Joel, “he has dropped one 
of the rolls of parchment he was carrying, and 
does not know it. I ’ll run after him with it.” 

He was hardly yet accustomed to the delight 
of being so fleet of foot; no halting step now 
to hinder him. He almost felt as if he were 
flying, and was by the young man’s side nearly 
as soon as he had started. 

“ Ah, you are the guest of my good neighbor, 
Reuben,” Lazarus said, after thanking him courte¬ 
ously. “ Are you not the lad whose lameness has 
just been healed by my best friend ? My sisters 
were telling me of it. It must be a strange ex¬ 
perience to suddenly find yourself changed from 
a helpless cripple to such a strong, straight lad 
as you are now. How did it make you feel ? ” 

“ Oh, I can never begin to tell you, Rabbi 




JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 141 

Lazarus,” answered Joel. “ I did not even 
think of it that moment when He held my 
hand in His. I only thought how much I loved 
Him. I had been starving before, but that 
moment He took the place of everything, — 
father, mother, the home love I had missed,— 
and more than that, the love of God seemed 
to come down and fold me so close and safe, 
that I knew He was the Messiah. I did not 
even notice that I was no longer lame, until I 
was far down the beach. Oh, you do not 
know how I wanted to follow Him ! If I could 
only have gone with Him instead of coming 
here! ” 

“ Yes, my boy, I know ! ” answered the young 
man, gently; “ for I, too, love Him.” 

This strong bond of sympathy between the 
two made them feel as if they had known each 
other always. 

“Come walk with me a little way,” said 
Lazarus. “I am going up to Jerusalem to the 
Temple. Or rather, would you not like to come 
all the way ? I have only to carry these rolls 
to one of the priests, then I will be at liberty 
to show you some of the strange sights in the 
city” 

Joel ran back for permission. Only stopping 


142 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


to wind his white linen turban around his head, 
he soon regained his new-found friend. 

His recollection of Jerusalem was a very dim, 
confused one. Time and time again he had 
heard pilgrims returning from the feasts try¬ 
ing to describe their feelings when they had 
come in sight of the Holy City. Now as they 
turned with the road, the view that rose before 
him made him feel how tame their descriptions 
had been. 

The morning sun shone down on the white 
marble walls of the Temple and the gold that 
glittered on the courts, as they rose one above 
the other; tower and turret and pinnacle shot 
back a dazzling light. 

It did not seem possible to Joel that human 
hands could have wrought such magnificence. 
He caught his breath, and uttered an exclama¬ 
tion of astonishment. 

Lazarus smiled at his pleasure. “ Come,” he 
said, “ it is still more beautiful inside.” 

They went very slowly through Solomon’s 
Porch, for every one seemed to know the 
young man, and many stopped to speak to 
him. Then they crossed the Court of the 
Gentiles. It seemed like a market-place; for 
cages of doves were kept there for sale, and 



JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


143 


lambs, calves, and oxen bleated and lowed in 
their stalls till Joel could scarcely hear what 
his friend was saying, as they pushed their 
way through the crowd, and stood before the 
Gate Beautiful that led into the Court of 
the Women. 

Here Lazarus left Joel for a few moments, 
while he went to give the rolls to the priest 
for whom he had copied them. 

Joel looked around. Then for the first time 
since his healing, he wondered if it would be 
possible for him to ever take his place among 
the Levites, or become a priest as he had been 
destined. 

While he wondered, Lazarus came back and 
led him into the next court. Here he could 
look up and see the Holy Place, over which was 
trained a golden vine, with clusters of grapes 
as large as a man’s body, all of purest gold. 
Beyond that he knew was a heavy veil of Baby¬ 
lonian tapestry, hyacinth and scarlet and purple, 
that veiled in awful darkness the Holy of Holies. 

As he stood there thinking of the tinkling bells, 
the silver trumpets, the clouds of incense, and the 
mighty songs, a great longing came over him to 
be one of those white-robed priests, serving daily 
in the Temple. 


144 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


But with the wish came the recollection of a 
quiet hillside, where only bird-calls and whirr of 
wings stirred the stillness; where a breeze from 
the sparkling lake blew softly through the grass, 
and one Voice only was heard, proclaiming its 
glad new gospel under the open sky. 

“No,” he thought to himself; “I’d rather be 
with Him than wear the High Priest’s mitre.” 

It was almost sundown when they found them¬ 
selves on the road homeward. They had visited 
place after place of interest. 

Lazarus found the boy an entertaining com¬ 
panion, and the friendship begun that day 
grew deep and lasting. 



CHAPTER XI. 


HAT are you looking for, grand¬ 
father ? ” called Jesse, as he pattered 
up the outside stairs to the roof, 
where Reuben stood, scanning the 

sky intently. 

“ Come here, my son,” he called. “ Stand right 
here in front of me, and look just where I point. 
What do you see ? ” 

The child peered anxiously into the blue 
depths just now lit up by the sunset. 

“ Oh, the new moon ! ” he cried. “ Where did it 
come from ? ” 

“ Summer hath dropped her silver sickle there, 
that Night may go forth to harvest in her star- 
fields,” answered the old man. Then seeing the 
look of inquiry on the boy’s face, hastened to add, 
“ Nay, it is the censer that God’s hand set swing¬ 
ing in the sky, to remind us to keep the incense of 
our praises ever rising heavenward. Even now a 
messenger may be running towards the Temple, to 
tell the Sanhedrin that it has appeared. Yea, 
10 



146 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


other eyes have been sharper than mine, for see ! 
Already the beacon light has been kindled on 
the Mount of Olives ! ” 

Jesse watched the great bonfire a few minutes, 
then ran to call his sister. By the time they were 
both on the roof, answering fires were blazing on 
the distant hilltops throughout all Judea, till the 
whole land was alight with the announcement of 
the Feast of the New Moon. 

“ I wish it could be this way every night, 
don’t you, Ruth ? ” said Jesse. “ Are you not 
glad we are here ? ” 

The old man looked down at the children with 
a pleased smile. “1 ’ll show you something pret¬ 
tier than this, before long,” he said. “ Just wait 
till the Feast of Weeks, when the people all 
come to bring the first fruits of the harvests. I 
am glad your visit is in this time of the year, for 
you can see one festival after another.” 

The day the celebration of the Feast of 
Weeks commenced, Reuben left his shop in 
charge of the attendants, and gave up his 
entire time to Joel and Jesse. 

“We must not miss the processions,” he said. 
“We will go outside the gates a little way, and 
watch the people come in.” 

They did not have long to wait till the stream 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


147 


of people from the upper countries began to pour 
in; each company carried a banner bearing the 
name of the town from which it came. A white 
ox, intended for a peace-offering, was driven first; 
its horns were gilded, and its body twined with 
olive wreaths. 

Flocks of sheep and oxen for the sacrifice, 
long strings of asses and camels bearing free¬ 
will gifts to the Temple, or old and helpless 
pilgrims that could not walk, came next. 

There were wreaths of roses on the heads of 
the women and children ; bands of lilies were 
tied around the sheaves of wheat. Piled high 
in the silver vessels of the rich, or peeping 
from the willow baskets of the poor, were the 
choicest fruits of the harvest. 

Great bunches of grapes from whose purple 
globes the bloom had not been brushed, velvety 
nectarines, tempting pomegranates, mellow pears, 
juicy melons, — these offerings of fruit and flow¬ 
ers gleamed all down the long line, for no one 
came empty-handed up this “ Hill of the Lord.” 

As they drew near the gates, a number of white- 
robed priests from the Temple met them. Reuben 
lifted Jesse in his arms that he might have a better 
view. “ Listen,” he said. Joel climbed up on a 
large rock. 


148 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


A joyful sound of flutes commenced, and a 
mighty chorus went up: “ I was glad when 
they said unto me, let us go into the house of 
the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, 
0 Jerusalem V* 

Voice after voice took up the old psalm, and 
Reuben’s deep tones joined with the others, as 
they chanted, “ Peace be within thy walls, and 
prosperity within thy palaces ! ” 

Following the singing pilgrims to the Temple, 
they saw the priests take the doves that were to 
be for a burnt-offering, and the first fruits that 
were to be laid on the altars. 

Jesse held fast to his grandfather’s hand as 
they passed through the outer courts of the 
Temple. He was half frightened by the din of 
voices, the stamping and bellowing and bleating 
of the animals as they were driven into the 
pens. 

He had seen one sacrificial service ; the great 
stream of blood pouring over the marble steps of 
the altar, and the smoke of the burnt-offerino* 
were still in his mind. It made him look 
pityingly now at the gentle-eyed calves and the 
frightened lambs. He was glad to get away 
from them. 

Soon after the time of this rejoicing was over, 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


149 


came ten solemn days that to Joel were full of 
interest and mystery. They were the days of 
preparation for the Fast of the Atonement. 
Disputes between neighbors were settled, and 
sins confessed. 

The last great day, the most solemn of all, was 
the only time in the whole year when the High 
Priest might draw aside the veil, and enter into 
the Holy of Holies. 

With all his rich robes and jewels laid aside, 
clad only in simple white, with bare feet and 
covered head, he had to go four times into the 
awful Presence. Once to offer incense, once to 
pray, to sprinkle the blood of a goat towards 
the mercy-seat, and then to bring out the 
censer. 

That was the day when two goats were taken; 
by casting lots one was chosen for a sacrifice. 
On the other the High Priest laid the sins of the 
people, and it was driven out into the wilderness, 
to be dashed to pieces from some high cliff. 

Tears came into Joefs eyes, as he watched the 
scape-goat driven away into the dreary desert. 
He pitied the poor beast doomed to such a death 
because of his nation’s sins. 

Then came the closing ceremonies, when the 
great congregation bowed themselves three times 


150 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


to the ground, with the High Priest shouting 
solemnly, “ Ye are clean! Ye are clean! Ye 
are clean! ” 

Joel was glad when the last rite was over, and 
the people started to their homes, as gay now as 
they had been serious before. 

“ When are we going back to our other 
home ? ” asked Ruth, one day. 

“ Why, are you not happy here, little daughter? ” 
said Abigail. “ I thought you had forgotten all 
about the old place.” 

“ I want my white pigeons,” she said, with a 
quivering lip, as if she had suddenly remembered 
them. “ I don’t want my father not to be here! ” 
she sobbed ; “ and I want my white pigeons ! ” 

Abigail picked her up and comforted her. 
“Wait just a little while. I think father will 
surely come soon. I will get my embroidery, 
and you may go with me across the street.” 

Ruth had been shy at first about going to see 
her mothers friends; but Martha coaxed her in 
with honey cakes she baked for that express pur¬ 
pose, and Mary told her stories and taught her 
little games. 

After a while she began to flit in and out of 
the house as fearlessly as a bright-winged 
butterfly. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


151 


One day her mother was sitting with the sis¬ 
ters in a shady corner of their court-yard, where 
a climbing honeysuckle made a cool sweet 
arbor. Ruth was going from one to the other, 
watching the bright embroidery threads take 
the shape of flowers under their skilful fingers. 
Suddenly she heard the faint tinkle of a silver 
bell. While she stood with one finger on her lip 
to listen, Lazarus came into the court-yard. 

“ See what I have brought you, little one,” he 
said. “It is to take the place of the pigeons you 
are always mourning for.” 

It was a snow-white lamb, around which he 
had twined a garland of many colored flowers, 
and from whose neck hung the little silver bell 
she had heard. 

At first the child was so delighted she could 
only bury her dimpled fingers in the soft fleece, 
and look at it in speechless wonder. Then she 
caught his hand, and left a shy little kiss on it, as 
she lisped, “ Oh, you ’re so good ! You ’re so 
good! ” 

After that day Ruth followed Lazarus as the 
white lamb followed Ruth; and the sisters hardly 
knew which sounded sweeter in their quiet 
home, the tinkling of the silver bell, or the 
happy prattle of the baby voice. 


152 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Abigail spent many happy hours with her 
friends. One day as they sat in the honey¬ 
suckle arbor, busily sewing, Ruth and Jesse came 
running towards them. 

“ I see my father coming, and another man,” 
cried the boy. “ I ’in going to meet them.” 

They all hastened to the door, just as the 
tired, dusty travellers reached it. 

“ Peace be to this house, and all who dwell 
therein,” said the stranger, before Phineas could 
give his wife and friends a warmer greeting. 

“We went first to your father’s house, but, 
finding no one at home, came here,” said 
Phineas. 

“ Come in ! ” insisted Martha. “ You look 
sorely in need of rest and refreshment.” 

But they had a message to deliver before they 
could be persuaded to eat or wash. 

“The Master is coming,” said Phineas. “He 
has sent out seventy of His followers, to go by 
twos into every town, and herald His approach, 
and proclaim that the day of the Lord is at hand. 
We have gone even into Samaria to carry the 
tidings there.” 

“ At last, at last! ” cried Mary, clasping her 
hands. “ Oh, to think that I have lived to see 
this day of Israel’s glory! ” 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


153 


“ Tell us what the Master has been doing,” 
urged Abigail, after the men had been refreshed 
by food and water. 

First one and then the other told of miracles 
they had seen, and repeated what He had taught. 
Even the children crept close to listen, leaning 
against their father’s knees. 

“ There has been much discussion about the 
kingdom that is to be formed. While we were 
in Peter’s house in Capernaum, some of the dis¬ 
ciples came quarrelling around Him, to ask who 
should have the highest positions. I suppose 
those who have followed Him longest think they 
have claim to the best offices.” 

“ What did He say ? ” asked Abigail, eagerly. 

Phineas laid his hand on Ruth’s soft curls. 
“ He took a little child like this, and set it in our 
midst, and said that he who would be greatest in 
His kingdom, must become even like unto it! ” 

“ Faith and love and purity on the throne of 
the Herods,” cried Martha. “ Ah, only Jehovah 
can bring such a thing as that to pass ! ” 

“ Are you going to stay at home now, 
father ? ” asked Jesse, anxiously. 

“ No, my son. I must go on the morrow to 
carry my renort to the Master, of the reception 
we have had in every town. But I will soon be 
back again to the Feast of Tabernacles.” 


154 JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 

“ Carry with you our earnest prayer that the 
Master will abide with us when He comes again 
to Bethany/’ said Martha, as her guests de¬ 
parted. “ No one is so welcome in our home, as 
the friend of our brother Lazarus.” 

The preparation for the Feast of the Taber¬ 
nacles had begun. “I am going to take the 
children to the city with me to-day! ” said 
Reuben, one morning, “to see the big booth I 
am having built. It will hold all our family, 
and as many friends as may care to share it 
with us.” 

Jesse was charmed with the great tent of green 
boughs. 

“ I wish I could have been one of the children 
that Moses led up out of Egypt,” he said, with a 
sigh. 

“ Why, my son ? ” asked Reuben. 

“ So’s I could have wandered around for forty 
years, living in a tent like this. How good it 
smells, and how pretty it is ! I wish you and 
grandmother would live here all the time ! ” 

The next day Phineas joined them. It was a 
happy family that gathered in the leafy booth 
for a week of out-door rejoicing in the cool 
autumn time. 

“ Where is the Master ? ” asked Abigail. 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 155 

“I know not,” answered her husband. “He 
sent us on before.” 

“ Will He be here, I wonder ? ” she asked, and 
that question was on nearly every lip in Jerusalem. 

"Will He be here?” asked the throngs of 
pilgrims who had heard of His miracles, and 
longed to see the man who could do such mar¬ 
vellous things. 

"Will He be here?” whispered the scribes to 
the Pharisees. “ Let Him beware ! ” 

"Will He be here?” muttered Caiaphas the 
High Priest. “ Then better one man should die, 
than that the whole community perish.” 

The sight that dazzled the eyes of the children 
that first evening of the week, was like fairyland; a 
blaze of lanterns and torches lit up the whole city. 

In the Court of the Women, in the Temple, all 
the golden lamps were lit, twinkling and burning 
like countless stars. 

On the steps that separated this court from 
the next one, stood three thousand singers, the 
sons and daughters of the tribe of Levi. Two 
priests stood at the top of the steps, and as each 
gave the signal on a great silver trumpet, the 
burst of song that went up from the vast choir 
seemed to shake the very heavens. Harps and 
psalters and flutes swelled with the rolling waves 


156 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


of the organ’s melody. To the sound of this 
music, men marched with flaming torches in 
their hands, and the marching and a weird torch- 
dance were kept up until the gates of the Temple 
closed. 

In the midst of all the feasting and the gaye- 
ties that followed, the long-expected Voice was 
heard in the arcades of the Temple. 

The Child of Nazareth was once more in His 
Father’s house about His Father’s business. 

On the last great day of the feast, Joel was up 
at day-break, ready to follow the older members 
of the family as soon as the first trumpet-blast 
should sound. 

In his right hand he carried a citron, as did all 
the others ; in his left was a palm-branch, the 
emblem of joy. An immense multitude gathered 
at the spring of Siloam. Water was drawn in a 
golden pitcher, and carried back to be poured on 
the great altar, while the choir sang with its 
thousands of voices, and all the people shouted, 
Amen and Amen ! 

When the days had gone by in which the 
seventy bullocks had been sacrificed, and when 
the ceremonies were all over, then the leaves 
were stripped from the green booths, and the 
people scattered to their homes. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 157 

Long afterward, Jesse remembered only the 
torch-light dances, the silver trumpets and the 
crowds, and the faint ringing of the fringe of 
bells on the priest’s robes as he carried the fire 
on the golden shovel to burn the sweet-smelling 
incense. 

Joel’s memory rang often with two cries that 
had startled the people. One when the water 
was poured from the golden pitcher. It was the 
Master’s voice: “ If any man thirst , let him come 
unto mef The other was when all eyes were 
turned on the blazing lamps. “ I am the Light of 
the World ! ” 

Reuben thought oftenest of the blind man to 
whom he had seen sight restored. But Lazarus 
was filled with anxiety and foreboding; through 
his office of scribe, he had come in close contact 
with the men who were plotting against his 
friend. Dark rumors were afloat. The air was 
hot with whisperings of hate. 

He had overheard a conversation between the 
Temple police, and some of the chief priests and 
Pharisees. 

“ Why did ye not take Him, as ye were or¬ 
dered ? ” they demanded angrily. 

“ We could not,” was the response; “ for never 
man spake like this man.” 


158 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


He had seen the mob searching for stones to 
throw at Him. Though He had disappeared out 
of their midst unhurt, still Lazarus felt that some 
terrible disaster was hanging threateningly over 
the head of his beloved friend. 


CHAPTER XII. 


T was with a deep feeling of relief 
that the two families watched the 
Master go away into Perea. Phineas 
still kept with Him. As the little 
band disappeared down the street, Ruth hid her 
face in her mothers dress and began to cry. 

“ I don’t want my father to go away again ! ” 
she sobbed. Abigail took her in her lap and 
tried to comfort her, although there were tears 
in her own eyes. 

“ We will go home soon, little daughter, and 
then father will be with us all the time. But we 
must wait first, till after the cold, rainy season, 
and the Feast of Dedication.” 

“ What! another feast ? ” asked Jesse, to whom 
the summer had seemed one long confusion of 
festivals. “ Don’t they have lots of them down 
in this country ! What’s this one for ? ” 

“ Grandfather will tell you,” answered his 
mother. “ Run out and ask him for the story. 
I know you will like it.” 




160 JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 

Seated on his grandfather’s knee, Jesse doubled 
up his little fists, as he heard how a heathen altar 
had once been set up on the great altar of burnt- 
offering, and a heathen general had driven a 
herd of swine through the holy Temple, making 
it unclean. But his breath came quick, and his 
eyes shone, as the proud old Israelite told him 
of Judas the Maccabee, Judas the lion-hearted, 
who had whipped the Syrian soldiers, purified 
the Temple, and dedicated it anew to the worship 
of Jehovah. 

“ Our people never forget their heroes,” ended 
the old man. “ Every year, in every home, no 
matter how humble, one candle is lighted at the 
beginning of the feast; the next night, two, and 
the next night, three, and so on, till eight candles 
shine out into the winter darkness. 

“ For so the brave deeds of the Maccabees burn 
in the memory of every child of Abraham! ” 

The feast came and went. While the candles 
burned in every home, and the golden lamps in 
the great Temple blazed a welcome, the Nazarene 
came back to His Father’s house, to be once more 
about His Father’s business. 

Joel caught a glimpse of Him walking up and 
down the covered porches in front of the Gate 
Beautiful. The next moment he was pushing 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


161 


and elbowing his way through the jostling 
crowds, till he stood close beside Him. 

After that, the services that followed were a 
blank. He saw only one face,— the face that had 
looked into his beside the Galilee, and drawn from 
his heart its intensest love. He heard only one 
voice, — the voice he had longed for all these 
weeks and days. Just to be near Him ! To be 
able to reach out reverent fingers and only touch 
the clothes He wore ; to look up in His face, 
and look and look with a love that never 
wearied, — that was such happiness that Joel 
was lost to everything else ! 

But after a while he began to realize that it 
was for no friendly purpose that the chief priests 
came pressing around with questions. 

“ If Thou be the Christ, tell us plainly,” they 
demanded. Then up and down through the 
long Porch of Solomon, among all its white 
marble pillars, they repeated His answer : — 

“ The works that I do in my Father’s name, 
they bear witness of me. I and my Father are 
one!” 

“ Blasphemy ! ” shouted a mocking voice be¬ 
hind Him. “ Blasphemy ! ” echoed Pharisee and 
Sadducee for once agreed. The crowds pushed 
and shoved between the pillars; some ran out 

11 


162 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


for stones. In the confusion of the uproar, as 
they turned to lay violent hands on Him, He 
slipped out of their midst, and went quietly 
away. 

Joel hunted around awhile for the party he 
had come with, but seeing neither Phineas nor 
Lazarus, started back to Bethany on the run. A 
cold winter rain had begun to fall. 

None of Reuben’s family had gone into Jeru¬ 
salem that day on account of the weather, but 
were keeping the feast at home. 

They were startled when the usually quiet 
boy burst excitedly into the house, and told 
them what he had just seen. 

“ 0 mother Abigail! ” he cried, throwing him¬ 
self on his knees beside her. “ If He goes away 
again may I not go with Him ? I cannot go back 
to Galilee and leave Him, unknowing what is to 
happen. If He is to be persecuted and driven 
out, and maybe killed, let me at least share His 
suffering, and be with Him at the last! ” 

“ You forget that He has all power, and that 
His enemies can do Him no harm/’ said Abigail, 
gently. “ Has He not twice walked out un¬ 
harmed, before their very eyes, when they would 
have taken Him ? And besides what good could 
you do, my boy ? You forget you are only a 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 163 

child, and might not be able to stand the hard¬ 
ships of such a journey. ,, 

“ I am almost fourteen,” said Joel, stretching 
himself up proudly. “ And I am as strong now 
as some of the men who go with Him. He 
gave me back my strength, you know. Oh, 
you do not know how I love Him ! ” he cried. 
“When I am away from Him, I feel as you 
would were you separated from Jesse and Ruth 
and father Phineas. My heart is always going 
out after Him ! ” 

“ Child, have you no cafe for us ? ” she re¬ 
sponded reproachfully. 

“ Oh, do not speak so ! 99 he cried, catching up 
her hand and kissing it. “ I do love you ; I can 
never be grateful enough for all you have done 
for me. But, 0 mother Abigail, you could 
never understand ! You were never lame and 
felt the power of His healing. You were never 
burning with a wicked hatred, and felt the balm 
of His forgiveness ! You cannot understand how 
He draws me to Him ! 

“ Let the boy have his way,” spoke up Reuben. 
“ I, too, have felt that wonderful power that 
draws all men to Him. Gladly would I part 
with every shekel I possess, if I thereby might 
win Him the favor of the authorities.” 


164 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


When once more a little band of fugitives 
followed their Master across the Jordan, Joel 
was with them. 

The winter wore away, and they still tarried. 
Day by day, they were listening to the simple 
words that dropped like seeds into their memo¬ 
ries, to spring up in after months and bear great 
truths. Now they heard them as half under¬ 
stood parables, — the good Samaritan, the barren 
fig-tree, the prodigal son, the unjust steward. 

There was one story that thrilled Joel deeply, — 
the story of the lost sheep. For he recalled that 
stormy night in the sheepfold of Nathan ben 
Obed, and the shepherd who searched till dawn 
for the straying lamb. 

It was only long afterwards that he realized it 
was the Good Shepherd Himself who told the 
story, when He was about to lay down His own 
life for the lost sheep of Israel. 

Meanwhile in Bethany, Rabbi Reuben and 
his wife rejoiced that their daughter’s visit 
stretched out indefinitely. 

Jesse openly declared that he intended to stay 
there always, and learn to be a goldsmith like 
his grandfather. 

Ruth, too, was happy and contented, and 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 165 

seemed to have forgotten that she ever had any 
other home. As the early spring days came on, 
she lived almost entirely out in the sunshine. 
She had fallen into the habit of standing at the 
gate to watch for Lazarus every evening when he 
came back from the Temple. As soon as she saw 
him turn the corner into their street, she ran to 
meet him, her fair curls and white dress flutter¬ 
ing in the wind. 

No matter how tired he was, or what cares 
rested heavily on his mind, the pale face always 
lighted up, and his dark eyes smiled at her 
coming. 

“ Lazarus does not seem well, lately,” she 
heard Martha say to her mother one day. “ I 
have been trying to persuade him to rest a 
few days; but he insists he cannot until he has 
finished the scroll he is illuminating.” 

A few days after that he did not go to the city 
as usual. Ruth peeped into the darkened room 
where he was resting on a couch; his eyes were 
closed, and he was so pale it almost frightened 
her. 

He did not hear her when she tiptoed into the 
room and out again ; but the fragrance of the 
little steinless rose she laid on his pillow aroused 
him. He opened his eyes and smiled languidly, 


166 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


as he caught sight of her slipping noiselessly 
through the door. 

Her mother, sewing by the window, looked 
out and saw her running across the street. 
Jesse was out in front of the house, playing 
with a ball. 

“ Who is that boy talking to Jesse ? ” asked 
Abigail of Rebecca, who stood in the doorway, 
holding out her arms as Ruth came up. 

“ Why, that is little Joseph, the only son of 
Simon the leper. Poor child ! ” 

“ Simon the leper,’" repeated Abigail. “ A 
stranger to me.” 

“ Surely not. Have you forgotten the wealthy 
young oil-seller who lived next the synagogue ? 
He has the richest olive groves in this part of 
the country.” 

“ Not the husband of my little playmate 
Esther! ” cried Abigail. “ Surely he has not 
been stricken with leprosy! ” 

“ Yes ; it is one of the saddest cases I ever 
heard of. It seems so terrible for a man 
honored as he has been, and accustomed to 
every luxury, to be such a despised outcast.” 

“ Poor Esther!’’ sighed Abigail. “ Does she 
ever see him ? ” 

“Not now. The disease is fast destroying 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


167 


him ; and he is such a hideous sight that he has 
forbidden her to ever try to see him again. 
Even his voice is changed. Of course he would 
be stoned if he were to come back. He never 
seeks the company of other lepers. She has had 
a room built for him away from the sight of men. 
Every day a servant carries him food and tidings. 
It is well that they have money, or he would be 
obliged to live among the tombs with others as 
repulsive-looking as himself, and such company 
must certainly be worse than none. Sometimes 
little Joseph is taken near enough to speak to 
him, that he may have the poor comfort of seeing 
his only child at a distance.” 

“ What if it were my Phineas! ” exclaimed 
Abigail, her tears dropping fast on the needle¬ 
work she held. “ Oh, it is a thousand times 
worse than death ! ” 

Out in the street the boys were making each 
other’s acquaintance in the off-hand way boys of 
that age have. 

“ My name is Jesse. What’s yours ? ” 

“ Joseph.” 

“ Where do you live ? ” 

“ Around the corner, next to the synagogue.” 

“ My father is a carpenter. What’s yours ? ” 

Joseph hesitated. “ He used to be an oil- 


168 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


seller/’ he said finally. “ He does n’t do any¬ 
thing now.” 

“ Why? ” persisted Jesse. 

“ He is a leper now/’ was the reluctant answer. 

A look of distress came over Jesse’s face. He 
had seen some lepers once, and the sight was 
still fresh in his mind. As they were riding 
down from Galilee, Joel had pointed them out 
to him. A group of beggars with horrible scaly 
sores that had eaten away their flesh, till some 
were left without lips or eyelids ; one held out 
a deathly white hand from which nearly all the 
fingers had dropped. Their hair looked like 
white wire, and they called out, in shrill, cracked 
voices, “ Unclean! Unclean! Come not near 
us ! ” 

“ How terrible to have one’s father like that,” 
thought Jesse. A lump seemed to come up in 
his throat; his eyes filled with tears at the bare 
idea. Then, boy-like, he tossed up his ball, and 
forgot all about it in the game that followed. 

Several days after he met Joseph and a servant 
who was carrying a large, covered basket and a 
water-bottle made of skin. 

“ I’m going to see my father, now,” said 
Joseph. “ Ask your mother if you can come 
with me.” 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


169 


Jesse started towards his home, then turned 
suddenly. “ No, I ’in not going to ask her, for 
she ’ll be sure to say no. I am just going 
anyhow.” 

“You’ll catch it when you get home!” ex¬ 
claimed Joseph. 

“Well, it cannot last long,” reasoned Jesse, 
whose curiosity had gotten the better of him. “ I 
believe I ’d rather take a whipping than not to 
go.” 

Joseph looked at him in utter astonishment. 

“ Yes, 1 would,” he insisted ; “so come on ! ” 

A short walk down an unfrequented road, in 
the direction of Jericho, took them to a lonely 
place among the bare cliffs. A little cabin stood 
close against the rocks, with a great sycamore- 
tree bending over it. Near by was the entrance 
to a deep cave, always as cool as a cellar, even in 
the hottest summer days. 

At the mouth of the cave sat Simon the leper. 
He stood up when he saw them coming, and 
wrapped himself closely in a white linen mantle 
that covered him from head to foot. It was a 
ghostly sight to Jesse; but to Joseph, so long 
accustomed to it, there seemed nothing strange. 

At a safe distance the servant emptied his 
basket on a large flat rock, and poured the water 


170 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


into a stone jar standing* near. Last of all, he 
laid a piece of parchment on the stone. It was 
Esthers daily letter to her exiled husband. 

No matter what storms swept the valley, or 
what duties pressed at home, that little missive 
was always sent. She had learned to write for 
his sake. By all his friends he was accounted 
dead ; but her love, stronger than death, bridged 
the gulf that separated them. She lived only to 
minister to his comfort as best she could. 

Simon did not send as long a message in return 
as this trusted messenger usually carried. He 
had much to say to his boy, and the sun was 
already high. 

Jesse, lagging behind in the shelter of the 
rock, heard the tender words of counsel and 
blessing that came from the white-sheeted figure 
with a feeling of awe. 

As the father urged his boy to be faithful to 
every little duty, careful in learning the prayers, 
and above all obedient to his mother, Jesse’s 
conscience began to prick him sorely. 

“ I believe I know somebody that could cure 
him,” he said, as they picked their way over the 
rocks, going home. “ ’Cause He made Joel 
well.” 

“ Who ’s Joel ? ” asked Joseph. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


171 


“ A boy that lives with us. He was just as 
lame, and limped way over when he walked. 
Now he is as straight as I am. All the sick 
people where I lived went to Him, and they got 
well.” 

Joseph shook his head. “ Lepers can’t be 
cured. Can they, Seth ? ” he asked, appealing 
to the servant. 

“ No, lepers are just the same as dead,” 
answered Seth. 66 There ’s no help for them.” 

Jesse was in a very uncomfortable frame of 
mind, as, hot and dusty, he left his companion 
and dragged home at a snail’s pace. 

Next morning Joseph was waiting for him out 
in front. “ Well, did she whip you ? ” he asked, 
with embarrassing frankness. 

“ No,” said Jesse, a little sheepishly. “ She 
put me to bed just as soon as I had eaten my 
dinner, and made me stay there till this 
morning.” 


CHAPTER XIII. 


UTH went every day to ask for her 
sick friend, sometimes with a bunch 
of grapes, sometimes with only a 
flower in her warm little hand. 

But there came a time when Martha met her, 
with eyes all swollen and red from crying, and 
told her they had sent to the city for a skilful 
physician. 

In the night there came a loud knocking at 
the door, and a call for Rabbi Reuben to come 
quickly, that Lazarus was worse. At day-break 
a messenger was sent clattering away to hurry 
over the Jordan in hot haste, and bring back 
from Perea the only One who could help them. 

The noise awakened Ruth ; she sat up in 
surprise to see her mother dressed so early. 
The outer door was ajar, and she heard the 
message that the anxious Martha bade the 
man deliver: “ Lord, he whom Thou lovest is 
sick.” 






JOEL *. A BOY OF GALILEE. 


173 


“ He will come right away and make him 
well, won’t He, mother ? ” she asked anxiously. 

“ Surely, my child,” answered Abigail. “ He 
loves him too well to let him suffer so.” 

But the day wore on, and the next; still 
another, and He did not come. 

Ruth stole around like a frightened shadow, 
because of the anxious looks on every face. 

“ Why does n’t He come ? ” she wondered ; and 
on many another lip was the same question. 

She was so quiet, no one noticed when she 
stole into the room where her friend lay dying. 
Mary knelt on one side of the bed, Martha on 
the other, watching the breath come slower 
and slower, and clinging to the unresponsive 
hands as if their love could draw him back to 
life. 

Neither shed a tear, but seemed to watch 
with their souls in their eyes, for one more 
word, one more look of recognition. 

Abigail sat by the window, weeping softly. 
Ruth had never seen her mother cry before, 
and it frightened her. She glanced at her 
grandfather, standing by the foot of the bed ; 
two great tears rolled slowly down his cheeks, 
and dropped on his long beard. 

A sudden cry from Mary, as she fell fainting 


174 JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 

to the floor, called her attention to the bed 
again. Martha was silently rocking herself to 
and fro, in an agony of grief. 

Still the child did not understand. Those 
in the room were so busy trying to bring 
Mary back to consciousness, that no one noticed 
Ruth. 

Drawn by some impulse she could not under¬ 
stand, the child drew nearer and nearer. Then 
she laid her soft little hand on his, thinking the 
touch would surely make him open his eyes and 
smile at her again; it had often done so before. 

But what was it that made her start back 
terrified, and shrink away trembling ? It was 
not Lazarus she had touched, but the awful 
mystery of death. 

“ I did not know that a little child could 
feel so deeply,” said Abigail to her mother, 
when she found that Ruth neither ate nor 
played, but wandered aimlessly around. 

“ I shall keep her away from the funeral.” 

But all her care could not keep from the little 
one’s ears the mournful music of the funeral 
dirge, or the wailing of the mourners, who 
gathered to do honor to the young man whom 
all Bethany knew and loved. 

Many friends came out from Jerusalem to 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


175 


follow the long procession to the tomb. There 
was a long eulogy at the grave; but the most 
impressive ceremony was over at last, and the 
great stone had to be rolled into the opening 
that formed the doorway. 

Then the two desolate sisters went back to 
their lonely home and empty life, wondering 
how they could go on without the presence 
that had been such a daily benediction. 

The fourth day after his death, as Martha 
sat listlessly looking out of the green arbor 
with unseeing eyes, Ruth ran in with a radiant 
face. 

“ He’s come ! ” she cried. “ He’s come, and so 
has my father. Hurry ! He is waiting for you! ” 

Martha drew her veil about her, and mechani¬ 
cally followed the eager child to the gate, where 
Phineas met her with the same message. 

“ Oh, why did He not come sooner ? ” she 
thought bitterly, as she pressed on after her 
guide. 

Once outside of the village, she drew aside her 
veil. There stood the Master, with such a look 
of untold sympathy on His worn face, that 
Martha cried out, “Lord, if Thou hadst been 
here my brother had not died ! ” 

“ Thy brother shall rise again,” He said gently. 


176 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Yes, I know he shall rise again in the resurrec¬ 
tion, at the last day,” she said brokenly. “ That 
brings hope for the future ; but what comfort is 
there for the lonely years we must live without 
him ? ” The tears streamed down her face again. 

Then for the first time came those words 
that have brought balm into thousands of 
broken hearts, and hope into countless tear- 
blind eyes. 

“ I am the resurrection and the life. He that 
believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou 
this ? ” 

Martha looked up reverently. “Yea, Lord, I 
believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
God which should come into the world.” 

A great peace came over her troubled spirit 
as she hurried to her home, where the many 
friends still sat who had come to comfort them. 
A number of them were from Jerusalem, and she 
knew that among them were some who were un¬ 
friendly to her brother’s friend. 

So she quietly called her sister from the room, 
whispering, “ The Master is come, and calleth for 
thee! ” 

Those who sat there thought they were going 
to the grave to weep, as was the custom. So they 
rose also, and followed at a little distance. 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 177 

Mary met Him with the same exclamation that 
her sister had uttered, and fell at His feet. 

He, seeing in her white face the marks of the 
deep grief she had suffered, was thrilled to the 
depths of His humanity by the keenest sympathy. 
His tears fell too, at the sight of hers. 

“ Behold how He loved Lazarus! ” said a man 
to the one who stood beside him. 

“ Why did He not save him then ? ” was the 
mocking answer. 

“ They say He has the power to open the eyes 
of the blind, and even to raise the dead. Let 
Him show it in this case ! ” 

It was a curious crowd that followed Him to 
the door of the tomb: men who hated Him for 
the scorching fire-brands of rebuke He had thrown 
into their corrupt lives; men who feared Him as 
a dangerous teacher of false doctrines; men who 
knew His good works, but hesitated either to 
accept or refuse; and men who loved Him 
better than life, — all waiting, wondering what 
He would do. 

“ Koll the stone away! ” He commanded; a 
dozen strong shoulders bent to do His bidding. 
Then He looked up and spoke in a low tone, 
but so distinctly that no one lost a word. 

“ Father,” He said,— He seemed to be speaking 
12 


178 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


to some one just beside Him, — “ I thank Thee that 
Thou hast heard me, and I knew that Thou hearest 
me always: but because of the people which stand 
by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast 
sent me.” 

A cold shiver of expectancy ran over those 
who heard. Then He cried, in a loud voice, 
“Lazarus , come forth !” There was a dread¬ 
ful pause. Some of the women clutched each 
other with frightened shrieks; even strong 
men fell back, as out of the dark grave walked 
a tall figure wrapped in w r hite grave-clothes. 

His face was hidden in a napkin. 66 Loose 
him, and let him go,” said the Master, calmly. 

Phineas stepped forward and loosened the outer 
bands. When the napkin fell from his face, they 
saw he was deathly white ; but in an instant a 
warm, healthful glow took the place of the 
corpse-like pallor. 

Not till he spoke, however, could the frightened 
people believe that it was Lazarus, and not a ghost 
they saw. 

Never had there been such a sight since the 
world began: the man who had lain four days 
in the tomb, walking side by side with the man 
w T ho had called him back to life. 

The streets were full of people, laughing, 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 179 

shouting, crying, fairly beside themselves with 
astonishment. 

Smiths left their irons to cool on the anvils, 
bakers left their bread to burn in the ovens; 
the girl at the fountain dropped her half-filled 
pitcher; and a woman making cakes ran into 
the street with the dough in her hands. 

Every house in the village stood empty, save 
one where a sick man moaned for water all 
unheeded, and another where a baby wakened 
in its cradle and began to cry. 

Long after the reunited family had gone into 
their home with their nearest friends, and shut 
the door on their overwhelming joy, the crowds 
still stood outside, talking among themselves. 

Many who had taken part against the Master 
before, now believed on account of what they had 
seen. But some still said, more openly than be¬ 
fore, “ He is in league with the evil one, or He 
could not do such things. ,, These hurried back 
to Jerusalem, to spread the report that this dan¬ 
gerous man had again appeared, almost at the 
very gates of the great Capital. 

That night there was a secret council of the 
chief priests and the Pharisees. “What shall 
we do,” was the anxious question. “If we let 
Him alone, all men will believe on Him; and 


180 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


the Romans shall come and take away both 
our place and our nation.’ 9 

Every heart beat with the same thought, but 
only Caiaphas put it in words. At last he dared 
repeat what he had only muttered to himself be¬ 
fore : “ It is expedient for us that one man 
should die for the people, and that the whole 
nation perish not.” 

While the streets were still full of people, 
Jesse crept up to Joel, as they sat together in 
the court-yard. “ Don’t you think it would be 
just as easy to cure a leper as to raise Rabbi 
Lazarus from the dead ? ” 

“ Yes, indeed! ” answered Joel, positively, 
“I’ve seen it done.” 

“ Oh, have you ? ” cried the boy, in delight. 
“ Then Joseph can have his father back again.” 

He told him the story of Simon the leper, and 
of his visit to the lonely cave. 

Joel’s sympathies were aroused at once. Ever 
since his own cure, he had felt that he must bring 
every afflicted one in the wide world to the great 
source of healing. 

Just then a man stopped at the gate to ask for 
Phineas. Joel had learned to know him well, in 
the weeks they had been travelling together; it 
was Thomas. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


181 


The boy sprang up eagerly. “ Do you know 
when the Master is going to leave Bethany ? ” he 
asked. 

“ In the morning,” answered Thomas, “ and 
right glad I am that it is to be so soon. For 
when we came down here, 1 thought it was 
but to die with Him. He is beset on all sides 
by secret enemies.” 

“ And will He go out by the same road that we 
came ? ” 

“ It is most probable.” 

Joel waited for no more information from him, 
but went back to Jesse to learn the way to the 
cave. 

Jesse was a little fellow, but a keen-eyed one, 
and was able to give Joel the few simple direc¬ 
tions that would lead him the right way. 

u Oh, I’m so glad you are going! ” he ex¬ 
claimed. 66 Shall I run and tell Joseph what 
you are going to do ? ” 

“ No, do not say a word to any one,” answered 
Joel. “I shall be back in a very short time.” 


CHAPTER XIV. 



fIMON the leper sat at the door of his 
cave. He held a roll of vellum in his 
unsightly fingers ; it was a copy of 
the Psalms that Lazarus had once made for him 
in happier days. 

Many a time he had found comfort in these 
hope-inspiring songs of David ; but to-day he was 
reading a wail that seemed to come from the 
depths of his own soul: 

“ Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and Thou 
hast afflicted me with all Thy waves. Thou hast 
put mine acquaintance far from me. Thou hast 
made me an abomination unto them. I am shut 
up and I cannot come forth. Lord, I have called 
daily upon Thee. I have stretched out; my hands 
unto Thee. Wilt Thou show wonders to the 
dead ? Shall the dead arise again and praise 
Thee ? Lord, why casteth Thou off my soul ? 
Why hidest Thou Thy face from me ? ” 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 183 

The roll dropped to the ground, and he hid 
his face in his hands, crying, “ How long must I 
endure this ? Oh, why was I not taken instead 
of Lazarus ? ” 

The sound of some one scrambling over the 
rocks made him look up quickly. 

Seth never made his visits at this time of the 
day, and strangers had never before found the 
path to this out-of-the-way place. 

Joel came on, and stopped by the rock where 
the water-jar stood. 

Simon stood up, covering himself with his 
mantle, and crying out, warniilgly, “ Beware ! 
Unclean ! Come no further ! ” 

“ I bring you news from the village,” said 
Joel. The man threw out his hand with a ges¬ 
ture of alarm. 

“ Oh, not of my wife Esther,” he cried, implor¬ 
ingly, “ or of my little Joseph ! I could not bear 
to hear aught of ill from them. My heart is still 
sore for the death of my friend Lazarus. I went 
as near the village as I dared, and heard the dirge 
of the flutes and the wailing of the women, when 
they laid him in the tomb. I have sat here ever 
since in sackcloth and ashes.” 

“ But Lazarus lives again! ” exclaimed Joel, 
simply. He had seen so many miracles lately, 


184 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


that he forgot the startling effect such an an¬ 
nouncement would have on one not accustomed 
to them. 

The man stood petrified with astonishment. 
At last he said bitterly, “ You but mock me, boy ; 
at least leave me to my sorrow in peace.” 

“ No ! ” cried Joel. “ As the Lord liveth, I 
swear it is the truth. Have you not heard that 
Messiah has come ? I have followed Him up and 
down the country, and know whereof I speak. 
At a word from Him the dumb sing, the blind 
see, and the lame walk. I was lame myself, and 
He made me as you see me now.” 

Joel drew himself up to his fullest height. 
Simon looked at him, completely puzzled. 

“ Why did you take the trouble to come and 
tell me that, — a poor despised leper ? ” he finally 
asked. 

“ Because I want everybody else to be as 
happy as I am. He cured me. He gave me 
back my strength. Then why should not my 
feet be always swift to bring others to Him for 
the same happy healing ? He Himself goes 
about all the time doing good. I know there is 
hope for you, for I have seen Him cleanse lepers.” 

Simon trembled, as the full meaning of the 
hope held out to him began to make itself clear 



“‘YOU BUT MOCK ME, BOY 


5 55 




















JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


185 


to his confused mind: health, home, Esther, 
child, — all restored to him. It was joy too great 
to be possible. 

“ Oh, if I could only believe it! ” he cried. 

“ Lazarus was raised when he had been four 
days dead. All Bethany can bear witness to 
that,” persisted Joel. The words poured out with 
such force and earnestness, as he described the 
scene, that Simon felt impelled to believe him. 

“ Where can I find this man ? ” he asked. 

Joel pointed down the rocky slope. “ Take 
that road that leads into Bethany. Come early 
in the morning, and as we all pass that way, call 
to Him. He never refuses any who have faith to 
believe that He can grant what they ask.’’ 

When Joel was half-way down the hill, he 
turned back. “ If He should not pass on the 
morrow,’ ’ he said, “ do not fail to be there on the 
second day. We will surely leave here soon.” 

Simon stood in bewilderment till the boy had 
passed down the hill; he began to fear that 
this messenger had been only the creation of a 
dream. He climbed upon the cliff and peered 
down into the valley. No, he had not been de¬ 
ceived ; the boy was no mirage of his thirsty 
soul, for there, he came out into full sight again, 
and now, he was climbing the opposite hillside. 


186 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ How beautiful upon the mountain are the 
feet of him who bringeth good tidings! ” he 
murmured. “ Oh, what a heaven opens out be¬ 
fore me, if this lad’s words are only true ! ” 

Next morning, after they left Bethany, Joel 
looked anxiously behind every rock and tree 
that they passed; but Simon was not to be seen. 

Presently Joel saw him waiting farther down 
the road ; he was kneeling in the dust. The 
white mantle, that in his sensitiveness was always 
used to hide himself from view, was cast aside, 
that the Great Healer might see his great need. 

He scanned the approaching figures with im¬ 
ploring eyes. He was looking for the Messiah, — 
some one in kingly garments, whose jewelled 
sceptre’s lightest touch would lay upon him the 
royal accolade of health. 

These were evidently not the ones he was 
waiting for. These were only simple wayfarers ; 
most of them looked like Galileans. 

He was about to rise up with his old warning 
cry of unclean, when he caught sight of Joel. 
But where was the princely Redeemer of 
prophecy ? 

Nearer and nearer they came, till he could look 
full in their faces. No need now to ask on which 
one he should call for help ; indeed, he seemed 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


187 


to see but one face, it was so full of loving 
pity. 

“ O Thou Messiah of Israel! ” he prayed. 
“ Thou didst call my friend Lazarus from the 
dead, 0 pass me not by ! Call me from this living 
death ! Make me clean ! ” 

The eyes that looked down into his seemed to 
search his soul. “ Believest thou that I can do 
this ? ” 

The pleading faith in Simon’s eyes could not 
be refused. “ Yea, Lord,” he cried, “ Thou hast 
but to speak the word ! ” 

He waited, trembling, for the answer that 
meant life or death to him. 

u I will. Be thou clean ! ” He put out His 
hand to raise the kneeling man to his feet. “ Go 
and show thyself to the priests,” He added. 

The party passed on, and Simon stood looking 
after them. Was it the Christ who had passed 
by ? Where were His dyed garments from Boz- 
rah? The prophet foretold Him as glorious in 
apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength. 
No sceptre of divine power had touched him ; 
it was only the clasp of a warm human hand 
he had felt. He looked down at himself. 
Still a leper ! His faith wavered ; but he remem¬ 
bered he had not obeyed the command to show 


188 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


himself to the priests. Immediately he started 
across the fields on a run, towards the road lead¬ 
ing into Jerusalem. 

Far down the highway Joel heard a mighty 
shout; he turned and looked back. There on 
the brow of a hill, sharply outlined against the 
sky, stood Simon. His arms were lifted high up 
towards heaven ; for as he ran, in obedience to 
the command, the leprosy had gone from him. 
He was pouring out a flood of praise and thanks¬ 
giving, in the first ecstasy of his recovery, at the 
top of his voice. 

Joel thought of the tiresome ceremonies to be 
observed before the man could go home, and 
wished that the eight days of purification were 
over, that the little family might be immediately 
reunited. 

Meanwhile, Seth, with his basket and w r ater- 
bottle, was climbing the hill toward the cave. 
For the first time in seven years since he had 
commenced these daily visits, no expectant voice 
greeted him. He went quite close up to the 
little room under the cliff; he could see 
through the half-open door that it was empty. 
Then he cautiously approached the mouth of 
the cave, and called his master. A hundred 
echoes answered him, but no human voice 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEEo 


189 


responded. Call after call was sent ringing into 
the hollow darkness. The deep stillness weighed 
heavily upon him ; he began to be afraid that 
somewhere in its mysterious depths lay a dead 
body. 

The fear mastered him. Only stopping to put 
down the food and pour out the water, he 
started home at the top of his speed. 

As he reached the road, a traveller going to 
Bethany hailed him. “ What think you that I 
saw just now ? 99 asked the stranger. “ A man 
running with all his might towards Jerusalem. 
Tears of joy were streaming down his cheeks, 
and he was shouting as he ran, ‘ Cleansed! 
Cleansed ! Cleansed ! ’ He stopped me, and 
bade me say, if I met a man carrying a basket 
and water-skin, that Simon the leper has just been 
healed of the leprosy. He will be home as soon 
as the days of purification are over.” 

Seth gazed at him stupidly, feeling that he 
must be in a dream. Esther, too, heard the 
message unbelievingly. Yet she walked the 
floor in a fever of excitement, at the bare possi¬ 
bility of such a thing being true. 

The next morning, she sent Seth, as usual, with 
the provisions. But he brought them back, say¬ 
ing the place was still deserted. 


190 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Then she began to dare to hope ; although 
she tried to steel herself against disappointment, 
by whispering over and over that she could never 
see him again, she waited impatiently for the 
days to pass. At last they had all dragged by. 

The new day would begin at sunset, the very 
earliest time that she might expect him. The 
house was swept and garnished as if a king were 
coming. The table was set with the choicest 
delicacies Seth could find in the Jerusalem 
markets. 

The earliest roses, his favorite red ones, were 
put in every room. In her restless excitement 
nothing in her wardrobe seemed rich enough to 
wear. She tried on one ornament after another 
before she was suited. Then, all in white, with 
jewels blazing in her ears, on her throat, on her 
little white hands, and her eyes shining like two 
glad stars, she sat down to wait for him. 

But she could not keep still. This rug was 
turned up at the corner ; that rose had dropped 
its petals on the floor. She would have another 
kind of wine on the table. 

At last she stepped out of the door in her little 
silken-bound sandals, and climbed the outside 
stairs to the roof, to watch for him. 

The sun was entirely out of sight, but the west 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


191 


was glorious with the red gold of its afterglow. 
Looking up the Mount of Olives, she could see 
the smoke of the evening sacrifice rising as the 
clouds of incense filled the Temple. Surely he 
must be far on the way by this time. 

Her heart almost stopped beating as she saw a 
figure coming up the road, between the rows of 
palm-trees. She strained her eyes for a nearer 
view, then drew a long tremulous breath. It 
was Lazarus ; there went the two children and 
the lamb to meet him. All along the street, 
people were standing in the doors to see him go 
past; he was still a wonder to them. 

She shaded her eyes with her hand, and looked 
again. But while her gaze searched the distant 
road, some one was passing just below, under 
the avenue of leafy trees, with quick impatient 
tread ; some one paused at the vine-covered door ; 
some one was leaping up the stairs three steps 
at a time ; some one was coming towards her 
with out-stretched arms, crying, 66 Esther, little 
Esther, O my wife ! My God-given one! ” 

For the first time in seven years, she turned to 
find herself in her husband’s arms. Strong and 
well, with the old light in his eyes, the old thrill 
in his voice, the glow of perfect health tingling 
through all his veins, he could only whisper 


192 JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 

tremulously, as he held her close, u Praise God ! 
Praise God!” 

No wonder he seemed like a stranger to 
•Joseph. But the clasp of the strong arms, 
and the deep voice saying “ my son/’ so ten¬ 
derly, were inexpressibly dear to the little fellow 
kept so long from his birthright of a father’s 
love. 

He was the first to break the happy silence 
that fell upon them. “ What a good man Rabbi 
Jesus must be, to go about making people glad 
like this all the time! ” 

“ It is He who shall redeem Israel! ” exclaimed 
Simon. “ To God be the glory, who hath sent 
Him into this sin-cursed world ! Henceforth all 
that I have, and all that I am, shall be dedicated 
to His service ! ” 

Kneeling there in the dying daylight, with his 
arms around the wife and child so unexpectedly 
given back to him, such a heart-felt prayer of 
gratitude went upward to the good Father that 
even the happiest angels must have paused to 
listen, more glad because of this great earth- 
gladness below. 


CHAPTER XV. 


THINK there will be an unusual 
gathering of strangers at the Pass- 
over this year,” said Rabbi Reuben 
to Lazarus, as they came out to¬ 
gether from the city, one afternoon. “ The 
number may even reach three millions. A 
travelling man from Rome was in my shop to^ 
day. He says that in the remotest parts of the 
earth, wherever the Hebrew tongue is found, 
one may hear the name of the Messiah. 

“ People pacing the decks of the ships, cross¬ 
ing the deserts, or trading in the shops, talk 
only of Him and His miracles; they have 
aroused the greatest interest even in Athens 
and the cities of the Nile. The very air seems 
full of expectancy. I cannot but think great 
things are about to come to pass. Surely the 
time is now ripe for Jesus to proclaim Himself 
king. I cannot understand why He should hide 
Himself away in the wilderness as if He feared 
for His safety.” 



13 


194 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


Lazarus smiled at the old man, with a confi¬ 
dent expression. “Be sure, my friend, it is 
only because the hour has not yet come. What 
a sight it will be when He does stand before 
the tomb of our long dead power, to call back 
the nation to its old-time life and grandeur. 
I can well believe that with Him all things are 
possible.” 

“ Would that this next Passover were the 
time ! ” responded Reuben. “ How I would re¬ 
joice to see His enemies laid low in the dust! ” 

Already, on the borders of Galilee, the expected 
king had started toward His coronation. Many 
of the old friends and neighbors from Caper¬ 
naum had joined their band, to go on to the 
Paschal feast. 

They made slow progress, however, for at 
every turn in the road they were stopped by 
outstretched hands and cries for help. Nearly 
every step was taken to the sound of some 
rejoicing cry from some one who had been 
blessed. 

Joel could not crowd all the scenes into his 
memory; but some stood with clear-cut distinct¬ 
ness. There were the ten lepers who met them 
at the very outset; and there was blind Barti- 
meus begging by the wayside. He could never 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


195 


forget the expression of that man’s face, when his 
eyes were opened, and for the first time he looked 
out on the glory of the morning sunshine. 

Joel quivered all over with a thrill of sym¬ 
pathy, remembering his own healing, and realiz¬ 
ing more than the others what had been done 
for the blind beggar. 

Then there was Zaccheus, climbing up to look 
down through the sycamore boughs that he 
might see the Master passing into Jericho, and 
Zaccheus scrambling down again in haste to pro¬ 
vide entertainment for his honored guest. 

There was the young ruler going away sor¬ 
rowful because the sacrifice asked of him was 
more than he was willing to make. But there 
was one scene that his memory held in unfading 
colors:— 

Roses and wild honeysuckle climbing over a 
bank by the road-side. Orange-trees dropping a 
heavy fragrance with the falling petals of their 
white blossoms. In the midst of the shade and 
the bloom the mothers from the village near by, 
gathering with their children, all freshly washed 
and dressed to find favor in the eyes of the pass¬ 
ing Prophet. 

Babies cooed in their mother’s arms. Bright 
little faces smiled out from behind protecting 


196 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


skirts, to which timid fingers clung. As they 
waited for the coming procession, and little bare 
feet chased each other up and down the bank, 
the happy laughter of the older children filled all 
the sunny air. 

As the travellers came on, the women caught 
up their children and crowded forward. It was 
a sight that would have made almost any one 
pause, — those innocent-eyed little ones waiting 
for the touch that would keep them always pure 
in heart, — that blessing their mothers coveted 
for them. 

But some of the disciples, impatient at the 
many delays, seeing in the rosy faces and dim¬ 
pled limbs nothing that seemed to claim help or 
attention, spoke to the women impatiently. 
“ Why trouble ye the Master ? ” they said. 
“ Would ye stop the great work He has come 
to do for matters of such little importance ? ” 

Bepelled by the rebuke, they fell back. But 
there was a look of displeasure on His face, such 
as they had never seen before, as Jesus turned 
toward them. 

“ Suffer the little children to come unto me,” 
He said, sternly, “and forbid them not; for of 
such is the kingdom of heaven ! ” 

Then holding out His hands He took them up in 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE* 197 

His arms and blessed them, every one, even the 
youngest baby, that blinked up at Him unknow¬ 
ingly with its big dark eyes, received its separate 
blessing. 

So fearlessly they came to Him, so lovingly 
they nestled in His arms, and with such perfect 
confidence they clung to Him, that He turned 
again to His disciples. “ Yerily I say unto you, 
Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God 
as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” 

Met at all points as He had been by loathsome 
sights, ragged beggars, and diseases of all kinds, 
this group of happy-faced children must have 
remained long in His memory, as sweet as the un¬ 
expected blossoming of a rose in a dreary desert. 

At last the slow journey drew towards a close. 
The Friday afternoon before the Passover found 
the tired travellers once more in Bethany. News 
of their coming had been brought several hours 
before by a man riding down from Jericho. His 
swift-footed beast had overtaken and passed the 
slow procession far back on the road. 

There was a joyful welcome for the Master in 
the home of Lazarus. The cool, vine-covered 
arbor was a refreshing change from the dusty 
road. Here were no curious throngs and con¬ 
stant demands for help. 


198 JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 

Away from the sights that oppressed Him, away 
from the clamor and the criticism, here was a 
place where heart and body might find rest. 
The peace of the place, and the atmospliere of 
sympathy surrounding Him, must have fallen 
like dew on His thirsty soul. Here, for a few 
short days, He who had been so long a houseless 
wanderer was to know the blessedness of a 
home. 

Several hours before the first trumpet blast 
from the roof of the synagogue proclaimed the 
approaching Sabbath, Simon hurried to his 
home. 

“ Esther/’ he called in great excitement, “ I 
have seen Him! The Christ! I have knelt at 
His feet. I have looked in His face. And, oh, 
only think! — He has promised to sit at our 
table ! To-morrow night, such a feast as has never 
been known in the place shall be spread before 
Him. Help me to think of something we may do 
to show him especial honor.” 

Esther sprang up at the news. “ We have 
very little time to prepare,” she said. “ Seth 
must go at once into the city to make purchases. 
To-morrow night, no hireling hand shall serve 
him. I myself shall take that lowly place, with 
Martha and Mary to aid me. Abigail, too, shall 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


199 


help us, for it is a labor of love that she will de¬ 
light to take part in. I shall go at once to ask 
them.” 

The long, still Sabbath went by. The wor¬ 
shippers in the synagogue looked in vain for 
other miracles, listened in vain for the Voice that 
wrought such wonders. 

Through the unbroken rest of that day He was 
gathering up His strength for a coming trial. 
Something of the approaching shadow may have 
been seen in His tender eyes; some word of the 
awaiting doom may have been spoken to the 
brother and sisters sitting reverently at his feet, 
— for they seemed to feel that a parting was at 
hand, and that they must crowd the flying hours 
with all the loving service they could render 
Him. 

That night at the feast, as Esther’s little white 
hands brought the water for the reclining guests 
to wash, and Martha and Abigail placed sumpt¬ 
uously filled dishes before them, Mary paused 
in her busy passing to and fro; she longed to 
do some especial thing to show her love for the 
honored guest. 

Never had His face worn such a look of royalty ; 
never had He seemed so much the Christ. The 
soft light of many candles falling on His worn 


200 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


face seemed to reveal as never before the 
divine soul soon to leave the worn body where 
it now tarried. 

An old Jewish custom suddenly occurred to her. 
She seemed to see two pictures: one was Aaron, 
standing up in the rich garments of the priest¬ 
hood, with his head bowed to receive the sacred 
anointing; the other was Israel’s first king, on 
whom the hoary Samuel was bestowing the 
anointing that proclaimed his royalty. Token 
of both priesthood and kingship, — oh, if she 
dared but offer it! 

No one noticed when she stepped out after 
awhile, and hurried swiftly homeward. Hidden 
away in a chest in her room, was a little alabas¬ 
ter flask, carefully sealed. It held a rare sweet 
perfume, worth almost its weight in gold. 

She took it out with trembling fingers, and 
hid it in the folds of her long flowing white 
dress. Her breath came quick, and her heart 
beat fast, as she slipped in behind the guests 
again. The color glowed and paled in her 
cheeks, as she stood there in the shadow of the 
curtains, hesitating, half afraid to venture. 

At last, when the banquet was almost over, 
she stepped noiselessly forward. There was a 
hush of surprise at this unusual interruption, 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


201 


although every one there was familiar with the 
custom, and recognized its deep meaning and 
symbolism. 

First on His head, then on His feet, she poured 
the costly perfume. Bending low in the deep¬ 
est humility, she swept her long soft hair across 
them to wipe away the crystal drops. The whole 
house was filled with the sweet, delicate odor. 

Some of those who saw it, remembered a 
similar scene in the house of another Simon, 
in far away Galilee; but only the Anointed One 
could feel the deep contrast between the two. 

That Simon, the proud Pharisee, condescend¬ 
ing and critical and scant in hospitality; this 
Simon, the cleansed leper, ready to lay down his 
life, in his boundless love and gratitude. That 
woman, a penitent sinner, kneeling with tears 
before His mercy; this woman, so pure in heart 
that she could see God though hidden in the 
human body of the Nazarene. That anoint¬ 
ing, to His priesthood at the beginning of His 
ministry; this anointing, to His kingdom, now 
almost at hand. No one spoke as the fra¬ 
grance rose and spread itself like the incense of 
a benediction. It seemed a fitting close to this 
hour of communion with the Master. 

Across this eloquent silence that the softest 


202 JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 

sound would have jarred upon, a cold, unfeeling 
voice broke harshly. 

It was Judas Iscariot who spoke. “ Why was 
all this ointment wasted ? ” he asked. “ It would 
have been better to have sold it and given it 
to the poor.” 

Simon frowned indignantly at this low-browed 
guest, who was so lacking in courtesy, and 
Mary looked up distressed. 

“ Let her alone! ” said the Master, gently. 
“ Ye have the poor with you always, and when¬ 
soever ye will, ye may do them good: but me 
ye have not always. She hath done what she 
could: she is come aforehand to anoint my 
body to the burying.” 

A dark look gleamed in the eyes of Judas,— 
there was that reference again to His burial. 
There seemed to be no use of making any fur¬ 
ther pretence to follow Him any longer. His 
kingdom was a delusion, — a vague, shadowy, 
spiritual thing that the others might believe in 
if they chose. But if there was no longer any 
hope of gaining by His service, he would turn 
to the other side. 

That night there was another secret council 
of some of the Sanhedrin, and Judas Iscariot was 
in their midst. 















JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


203 


When the lights were out, and the Temple 
police were making their final rounds, a dark 
figure went skulking out into the night, and 
wound its way through the narrow streets, — 
the dark figure that still goes skulking through 
the night of history, — the man who covenanted 
for thirty pieces of silver to betray his Lord. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


HO is that talking in the house ? ” 
asked Joel of Abigail the morning 
after the feast. He had been play¬ 
ing in the garden with Jesse, and 
paused just outside the door as he heard 
voices. 

“ Only father and Phineas, now,” answered 
Abigail. “ Simon the oil-seller has just been 
here, and I am sure you could not guess his 
errand. It was about you.” 

“ About me ? ” echoed Joel, in surprise. 

“ Yes, I never knew until this morning that 
you were the one who persuaded him to go to 
the Master for healing. He says if it had not 
been for you, he would still be an outcast from 
home. During these weeks you have been 
away, he has been hoping to find some trace of 
you, for he longs to express his gratitude. Last 
night at the feast, he learned your name, and 
now he has just been here to talk to Phineas 



JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


205 


and father about you. His olive groves yield 
him a large fortune every year, and he is in a 
position to do a great deal for you, if you will 
only let him.” 

“ What does he want to do ?” asked Joel. 

“ He has offered a great deal: to send you to 
the best schools in the country; to let you travel 
in foreign lands, and see life as it is in Rome and 
Athens and the cities of Egypt. Then when you 
are grown, he offers to take you in business with 
himself, and give you the portion of a son. It is 
a rare chance for you, my boy.” 

“Yes,” answered Joel, flushing with pleasure 
at the thought of all he might be able to see and 
learn. He seemed lost for a few minutes in the 
bright anticipation of such a tempting future ; 
then his face clouded. 

“ But I would have to leave everybody I love,” 
he cried, “ and the home where I have been so 
happy ! I cannot do it, mother Abigail; it is 
too much to ask.” 

“ Now you talk like a child,” she answered, half 
impatiently; but there was a suspicion of tears 
in her eyes as she added, “Joel, you have grown 
very dear to us. It will be hard to give you up, 
for you seem almost like an own son. But con¬ 
sider, my boy; it would not be right to turn 


206 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


away from such advantages. Jesse and Ruth 
will be well provided for. All that my father 
has will be theirs some day. But Phineas is only 
a poor carpenter, and cannot give you much be¬ 
yond food and clothing. I heard him say just 
now that he clearly thought it to be your duty 
to accept, and he had no doubt but that you 
would.” 

“ But I cannot be with the Master! ” cried 
Joel, as the thought suddenly occurred to him 
that he could no longer follow Him as he had 
been doing, if he was to be sent away to study 
and travel. 

“ No; but think what you may be able to do 
for His cause, if you have money and education 
and influence. It seems to me that for His sake 
alone, you ought to consent to such an arrange¬ 
ment.” 

That was the argument that Phineas used when 
he came out; and the boy was sadly bewildered 
between the desire to be constantly with his be¬ 
loved Master, and his wish to serve Him as they 
suggested. 

It was in this perplexed state of mind that he 
started up to Jerusalem with Jesse and his grand¬ 
father. 

The streets were rapidly filling with people, 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 207 

coming up to the Feast of the Passover, and Joel 
recognized many old friends from Galilee. 

“ There is Rabbi Amos ! ” he exclaimed, as he 
caught sight of an old man in the door of a house 
across the street. “ May I run and speak to him ? ” 

“ Certainly ! ” answered Reuben. “ You know 
your way so well about the streets that it makes 
no difference if we do get separated. Jesse and I 
will walk on down to the shop. You can meet us 
there.” 

Rabbi Amos gave Joel a cordial greeting. “ I 
am about to go back to the Damascus gate,” he 
said. “ I have just been told that the Nazarene 
will soon make His entrance into the city, and 
a procession of pilgrims are going out to meet 
Him. I have heard much of the man since He left 
Capernaum, and I have a desire to see Him again. 
Will you come ? ” 

The old man hobbled along so painfully, lean¬ 
ing on his staff, that they were a long time in 
reaching the gate. The outgoing procession had 
already met the coming pilgrims, and were start¬ 
ing to return. The way was strewn with palm 
branches and the clothes they had taken off to 
lay along the road in front of the man they 
wished to honor. Every hand carried a palm 
branch, and every voice cried a Hosannah. 


208 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


At first Joel saw only a confused waving of the 
green branches, and heard an indistinct murmur 
of voices; but as they came nearer, he caught 
the words, “ Hosannah to the Son of David ! ” 

“ Look! ” cried Rabbi Amos, laying his wrin¬ 
kled, shaking hand heavily on Joel’s shoulder. 
“ Look ye, boy, the voice of prophecy! No 
Roman war-horse bears the coming victor! It is 
as Zechariah foretold! That the king should come 
riding upon the colt of an ass, — the symbol of 
peace. So David rode, and so the Judges of 
Israel came and went!” 

Joel’s eyes followed the gesture of the tremu¬ 
lous, pointing finger. There came the Master, 
right in the face of His enemies, boldly riding in 
to take possession of His kingdom. 

At last! No wandering now in lonely wilder¬ 
nesses ! No fear of the jealous scribe or Pharisee! 
The time had fully come. With garments strewn 
in the way, with palms of victory waving before 
Him, with psalm and song and the shouting of the 
multitude, He rode triumphantly into the city. 

Joel was roused to the highest pitch of enthusi¬ 
asm, to see His best beloved friend so honored. 
People understood Him now; they appreciated 
Him. The demonstrations of the multitude proved 
it. He was so happy and excited, he scarcely 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


209 


knew what he was doing. He had no palm branch 
to wave, but as the head of the procession came 
abreast with him, and he saw the face of the rider, 
he was almost beside himself. 

He waved his empty hands wildly up and down, 
cheering at the top of his voice ; but his shrillest 
Hosannahs were heard only by himself. They 
were only a drop in that mighty surf-beat of 
sound. 

Scarcely knowing what to expect, yet prepared 
for almost anything, they followed the procession 
into the city. When they reached the porch of 
the Temple, the Master had disappeared. 

a I wonder where He has gone,’’ said Joel, in a 
disappointed tone. “ I thought they would surely 
crown Him.’ , 

“ He evidently did not wish it to be,” answered 
Rabbi Amos. “ It would be more fitting that the 
coronation take place at the great feast. Wait 
until the day of the Passover.” 

As they sat in the Court of the Gentiles, rest¬ 
ing, Joel told Rabbi Amos of the offer made him 
by the wealthy oil-dealer Simon. 

“ Accept it, by all means! ” was the old man's 
advice. “ We have seen enough just now to know 
that a new day is about to dawn for Israel. In 
Bethany, you will be much nearer the Master than 

14 


210 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


in Capernaum; for surely, after to-day’s demonstra¬ 
tion, He will take up His residence in the capital. 
In time you may rise to great influence in the 
new government soon to be established.” 

The old rabbi’s opinion weighed heavily with 
Joel, and he determined to accept Simon’s offer. 
Then for awhile he was so full of his new plans 
and ambitions, he could think of nothing else. 

All that busy week he was separated from the 
Master and His disciples ; for it was the first Pass- 
over he had ever taken part in. After it was over, 
he was to break the ties that bound him to the 
carpenter’s family and the simple life in Galilee, 
and go to live in Simon’s luxurious home in 
Bethany. 

So he stayed closely with Phineas and Abigail, 
taking a great interest in all the great prepara¬ 
tions for the feast. 

Reuben chose, from the countless pens, a male 
lamb a year old, without blemish. About two 
o’clock the blast of two horns announced that 
the priests and Levites in the Temple were ready, 
and the gates of the inner courts were opened, 
that all might bring the lambs for examination. 

The priests, in two long rows, caught the blood 
in great gold and silver vessels, as the animals were 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 211 

killed, and passed it to others behind, till it reached 
the altar, at the foot of which it was poured out. 

Then the lamb was taken up and roasted in an 
earthen oven, and the feast commenced at sunset 
on Thursday. The skin of the lamb, and the 
earthen dishes used, were generally given to the 
host, when different families lodged together. 

As many as twenty were allowed to gather at 
one table. Reuben had invited Nathan ben Obed, 
and those who came with him, to partake of his 
hospitality. Much to Joel’s delight, a familiar 
shock of sunburned hair was poked in at the door, 
and he recognized Buz’s freckled face, round¬ 
eyed and open mouthed at this first glimpse of 
the great city. 

During the first hour they were together, Buz 
kept his squinting eyes continually on Joel. He 
found it hard to believe that this straight, sinewy 
boy could be the same pitiful little cripple who 
had gone with him to the sheepfolds of Nathan 
ben Obed. 

“ Say,” he drawled, after awhile, “ I know 
where that fellow is who made you lame. I was 
so upset at seeing you this way that I forgot to 
tell you. He had a dreadful accident, and you 
have already had your wish, for he is as blind as 
that stone.” 


212 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Oh, how ? Who told you? ” cried Joel, eagerly. 

“ I saw him myself, as we came through Jericho. 
He had been nearly beaten to death by robbers 
a few weeks before. It gave him a fever, and 
both eyes were so inflamed and bruised that he 
lost his sight.” 

“ Poor Rehum! ” exclaimed Joel. 

“ Poor Rehum! ” echoed Buz, in astonishment. 
“ What do you mean by poor Rehum ? Are n’t 
you glad ? Is n’t that just exactly what you 
planned; or did you want the pleasure of 
punching them out yourself?” 

“No,” answered Joel, simply; “ I forgave him 
a year ago, the night before I was healed.” 

“ You forgave him !” gasped Buz, — “ you for¬ 
gave him! A dog of a Samaritan ! Why, how 
could you?” 

Buz looked at him with such a wondering, puz¬ 
zled gaze that Joel did not attempt to explain. 
Buz might be ignorant of a great many things, 
but he knew enough to hate the Samaritans, and 
look down on them with the utmost contempt. 

a I don’t really believe you could understand it,” 
said Joel, “ so it is of no use to try to tell you how 
or why. But I did forgive him, fully and freely. 
And if you will tell me just where to find him, 
I will go after him early in the morning and 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


213 


bring him back with me. The Hand that straight¬ 
ened my back can open his eyes \ for I have seen 
it done many times.” 

All during the feast, Buz kept stealing search¬ 
ing glances at Joel. He could hardly tell which 
surprised him most, the straightened body or 
the forgiving spirit. It was so wonderful to him 
that he sat speechless. 

At the same time, in an upper chamber in an¬ 
other street, the Master and His disciples were 
keeping the feast together It was their last 
supper with Him, although they knew it not. 
Afterwards they recalled every word and every 
incident, with loving memory that lingered over 
each detail; but at the time they could not 
understand its full import. 

The gates were left open on Passover night. 
While the Master and His followers walked out 
to the Garden of Gethsemane, where they had 
often gone together, Joel was questioning Buz 
as to the exact place where he was to find his old 
enemy. 

“ I 'll go out very early in the morning,” said 
Joel, as his head touched the pillow. "Very 
early in the morning, for I want Rehum’s eyes 
to be open just as soon as possible, so that he 
can see the Master’s face. Lord help me to 


214 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


find him to-morrow/’ he whispered, and with a 
blessing on his lips for the one he had so long ago 
forgiven, his eyes closed softly. 

Sleep came quickly to him after the fatigue and 
excitement of the day. In his dreams he saw 
again the Master’s face as He made His triumphal 
entrance into the city; he heard again the ac¬ 
clamations of the crowd. Then he saw Rabbi 
Amos and Simon and little Ruth. There was a 
confused blending of kindly faces; there was a 
shadow-like shifting of indistinct but pleasant 
scenes. In the fair dreamland where he wan¬ 
dered, fortune smiled on him, and all his paths 
were peace. 

Sleep on, little disciple, happy in thy dream¬ 
ing ; out in Gethsemane’s dark garden steals 
one to betray thy Lord! By the light of glim¬ 
mering lanterns and fitful torches they take Him 
now. Armed with swords and staves, they lead 
Him out from the leafy darkness into the moon- 
flooded highroad. 

Now He stands before the High Priest, — alone, 
unfriended. Sleep, and wake not at the cock’s 
shrill crowing, for there is none to make answer 
for Him, and one who loved Him hath thrice 
denied! 

Dream on! In the hall of Pilate now, thorn- 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


215 


crowned and purple-clad, Him whom thou lovest; 
scourged now, and spat upon. This day, indeed, 
shall He come into His kingdom, but well for thee, 
that thou seest not the coronation. 

Sleep on, little disciple, be happy whilst thou 
can ! 


CHAPTER XVII. 



|T was so much later than he had 
intended, when Joel awoke next 
morning, that without stopping for 
anything to eat, he hurried out of the 
city, and took the road by which the Master had 
made such a triumphal entry a few days before. 

Faded branches of palms still lay scattered by 
the wayside, thickly covered with dust. 

All unconscious of what had happened the night 
before, and what was even at that very moment 
taking place, Joel trudged on to Bethany at a 
rapid pace, light-hearted and happy. 

For six days he had been among enthusiastic 
Galileans who firmly believed that before the 
end of Passover week they should see the over¬ 
throw of Rome, and all nations lying at the feet 
of a Jewish king. How long they had dreamed 
of this hour! 

He turned to look back at the city. The white 
and gold of the Temple dazzled his eyes, as it 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


217 


threw back the rays of the morning sun. He 
thought of himself as he had stood that day on the 
roof of the carpenter’s house, stretching out long¬ 
ing arms to this holy place, and calling down 
curses on the head of his enemy, Rehum. 

Could he be the same boy ? It seemed to him 
now that that poor, crippled body, that bitter 
hatred, that burning thirst for revenge, must 
have belonged to some one else, he felt so well, 
so strong, so full of love to God and all mankind. 

A little broken-winged sparrow fluttered feebly 
under a hedgerow. He stopped to gather a 
handful of ripe berries for it, and even retraced 
his steps to a tiny spring he had noticed farther 
back, to bring it water in the hollow of a smooth 
stone. 

He did not find Rehum at the place where Buz 
had told him to inquire. His father had taken 
him to his home, somewhere in Samaria. 

Joel turned back, tired and disappointed. He 
was glad to lie down, when he reached Bethany 
again, and rest awhile. A peculiar darkness be¬ 
gan to settle down over the earth. Joel was 
perplexed and frightened ; he knew it could not 
be an eclipse, for it was the time of the full moon. 
Finally he started back to Jerusalem, although 
it was like travelling in the night, for the dark- 


218 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


ness had deepened and deepened for nearly three 
hours, and the mysterious gloom made him long 
to he with his friends. 

His first thought was to find the Master, and 
he naturally turned toward the Temple. Just as 
he started across the Porch of Solomon, the dark¬ 
ness was lifted, and everything seemed to dance 
before his eyes. He had never experienced an 
earthquake shock before, but he felt sure that 
this was one. 

He braced himself against one of the pillars. 
How the massive columns quivered ! How the 
hot air throbbed ! The darkness had been awful, 
but this was doubly terrifying. 

The earth had scarcely stopped trembling, when 
an old white-bearded priest ran across the Court 
of the Gentiles ; his wrinkled hands, raised above 
his head, shook as w T ith palsy. The scream that 
he uttered seemed to transfix Joel with horror. 

“ The veil of the Temple is rent in twain! ” he cried, 
— “ The veil of the Temple is rent in twain!” 

Then with a convulsive shudder he fell forward 
on his face. Joel’s knees shook. The darkness, 
the earthquake, and now this mighty force that 
had laid bare the Holy of Holies, filled him with 
an undefined dread. 

He ran past the prostrate priest into the inner 



JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


219 


court, and saw for himself. There hung the 
heavy curtain of Babylonian tapestry, in all its 
glory of hyacinth and scarlet and purple, torn 
asunder from top to bottom. No earthquake 
shock could have made that ragged gash. The 
wrath of God must have come down and laid 
mighty fingers upon it. 

He ran out of the Temple, and towards the 
house where he had slept the night before. 

The earthquake seemed to have shaken all 
Jerusalem into the streets. Strange w r ords were 
afloat. A question overheard in passing one 
excited group, an exclamation in another, made 
him run the faster. 

At Reuben’s shop he found Jesse and Ruth 
both crying from fright. The attendant who had 
them in charge told him that his friends had been 
gone nearly all day. 

“ Where ? ” demanded Joel. 

“ T do not know exactly. They went out with 
one of the greatest multitudes that ever passed 
through the gates of the city. Not only Jew T s, 
but Greeks and Romans and Egyptians. You 
should have seen the camels and the chariots, the 
chairs and the litters ! ” exclaimed the man. 

A sudden fear fell upon the boy that this was 
the day that the One he loved best had been 


220 JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 

made king, and he had missed it, — had missed 
the greatest opportunity of his life. 

“ Was it to follow Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth?” 
he demanded eagerly. 

The man nodded. 

“ To crown Him ? ” was the next breathless 
question. 

“ No; to crucify Him.” 

The unexpected answer was almost a death- 
thrust. Joel stood a moment, dumb with horror. 
The blood seemed to stand still in his veins; there 
was a roaring in his ears ; then everything grew 
black before him. He clutched blindly at the 
air, then staggered back against the wall. 

“ No, no , no, NO ! ” he cried ; each word was 
louder than the last. “ I will not believe it! You 
do not speak truth ! ” 

He ran madly from the shop, down the street, 
and through the city gate. Out on the highway 
he met the returning multitude, most of them in 
as great haste as he. 

Everything he saw seemed to confirm the truth 
of what he had just heard, but he could not be¬ 
lieve it. 

“ No, no, no ! ” he gasped, in a breathless whis¬ 
per, as he ran. “ No, no, no ! It cannot be! He 
is the Christ! The Son of God! They could not 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


221 


be able to do it, no matter how much they hated 
Him! ” 

But even as he ran he saw the hill where 
three crosses rose. He turned sick and cold, 
and so weak he could scarcely stand. Still he 
stumbled resolutely on, but with his face turned 
away from the sight he dared not look upon, lest 
seeing should be knowing what he feared. 

At last he reached the place, and, shrinking 
back as if from an expected blow, he slowly raised 
his eyes till they rested on the face of the dead 
body hanging there. 

The agonized shriek on his lips died half uttered, 
as he fell unconscious at the foot of the cross. 

A long time after, one of the soldiers happen¬ 
ing to notice him, turned him over with his foot, 
and prodded him sharply with his spear. It 
partially aroused him, and in a few moments he 
sat up. Then he looked up again into the white 
face above him ; but this time the bowed head 
awed him into a deep calm. 

The veil of the Temple was rent indeed, and 
through this pierced body there shone out from 
its Holy of Holies the Shekinah of God’s love 
for a dying world. It uplifted Joel, and drew 
him, and drew him, till he seemed to catch a 
faint glimpse of the Father’s face ; to feel him- 


222 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


self folded in boundless pardon, in pity so deep, 
and a love so unfathorned, that the lowest sinner 
could find a share. But while he gazed and 
gazed into the white face, so glorified in its 
marble stillness, Joseph of Arimathea stood be¬ 
tween him and the cross, giving directions, in a 
low tone, for the removal of the body. 

It seemed to waken Joel out of his trance; and 
when the bloodstained form was stretched gently 
on the ground, he forgot his glimpse of heavenly 
mysteries, he saw no longer the uplifted Christ. 
He saw instead, the tortured body of the man he 
loved; the friend for whom he would gladly 
have given his life. 

Almost blinded by the rush of tears, he groped 
his way on his knees toward it. A mantle of 
fine white linen had been laid over the lifeless 
body; but one hand lay stretched out beside 
Him with a great bloody nail-hole through the 
palm, — it was the hand that had healed him ; 
the hand that had fed the hungry multitudes ; the 
hand that had been laid in blessing on the heads 
of little children, waiting by the roadside ! With 
the thought of all it had done for him, with the 
thought of all it had done for all the countless ones 
its warm, loving touch had comforted, came the 
remembrance of the torture it had just suffered. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


223 


Joel lay down beside it with a heart-broken 
moan. 

Men came and lifted the body in its spotless 
covering. Joel did not look up to see who bore 
it away. 

The lifeless hand still hung down uncovered at 
His side. With his eyes fixed on that, Joel 
followed, longing to press it to his lips with 
burning kisses; but he dared not so much as 
touch it with trembling fingers, — a sense of 
his unworthiness forbade. 

As the silent procession went onward, Joel 
found himself walking beside Abigail. She had 
pushed her veil aside that she might better see 
the still form borne before them; she had stood 
near by through all those hours of suffering. 
Her wan face and swollen eyes showed how the 
force of her sympathy and grief had worn upon 
her. 

Joel glanced around for Phineas. He was one 
of those who walked before with the motionless 
burden, his strong brown hands tenderly sup¬ 
porting the Master’s pierced feet; his face was 
as rigid as stone, and seemed to Joel to have 
grown years older since the night before. 

Another swift rush of tears blinded Joel, as he 
looked at the set, despairing face, and then at 
what he carried. 


224 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


0 friend of Phineas! 0 feet that often ran to 
meet him on the grassy hillsides of Nazareth, 
that walked beside him at his daily toil, and led 
him to a nobler living ! — Thou hast climbed the 
mountain of Beatitudes ! Thou hast walked the 
wind-swept waters of the Galilee ! But not of 
this is he thinking now. Tt is of Thy life’s un¬ 
selfish pilgrimage; of the dust and travel stains 
of the feet he bears; of the many steps, taken 
never for self, always for others; of the cure and 
the comfort they have daily carried ; of the great 
love that hath made their very passing by to be 
a benediction: 

It seemed strange to Joel that, in the midst of 
such overpowering sorrow, trivial little things 
could claim his attention. Years afterward he 
remembered just how the long streaks of yellow 
sunshine stole under the trees of the garden; 
he could hear the whirr of grasshoppers, jump¬ 
ing up in the path ahead of them; he could 
smell the heavy odor of lilies growing beside an 
old tomb. 

The sorrowful little group wound its way to a 
part of the garden where a new tomb had been 
hewn out of the rock ; here Joseph of Arimathea 
motioned them to stop. They laid the open bier 
gently on the ground, and Joel watched them 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


225 


with dry eyes but trembling lips, as they noise¬ 
lessly prepared the body for its hurried burial. 

From time to time as they wound the bands of 
white linen, powdered with myrrh and aloes, 
they glanced up nervously at the sinking sun. 
The Sabbath eve was almost upon them, and the 
old slavish fear of the Law made them hasten. 
A low stifled moaning rose from the lips of the 
women, as the One they had followed so long 
was lifted up, and borne forever out of their 
sight, through the low doorway of the tomb. 

Strong hands rolled the massive stone in place 
that barred the narrow opening. Then all was 
over ; there was nothing more that could be done. 

The desolate mourners sat down on the grass 
outside the tomb, to watch and weep and wait 
over a dead hope and a lost cause. 

A deep stillness settled over the garden as 
they lingered there in the gathering twilight. 
They grew calm after awhile, and began to talk 
in low tones of the awful events of the day just 
dying. 

Gradually, Joel learned all that had taken place. 
As he heard the story of the shame and abuse 
and torture that had been heaped upon the One 
he loved better than all the world, his face grew 
white with horror and indignation. 

15 


226 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


“ Oh, was n’t there one to stand up for Him ? ” 
he cried, with clasped hands and streaming eyes. 
“ Was n’t there one to speak a word in His de¬ 
fence ? 0 my Beloved ! ” he moaned. “ Out 

of all the thousands Thou didst heal, out of all 
the multitudes Thou didst bless, not one to bear 
witness! ” 

He rocked himself to and fro on his knees, 
wringing his hands as if the thought brought 
him unspeakable anguish. 

“ Oh, if I had only been there! ” he moaned. 
“ If I could only have stood up beside Him and 
told what He had done for me ! 0 my God! 

My God ! How can I bear it ? To think He 
went to His death without a friend and without 
a follower, when I loved Him so! All alone ! 
Not one to speak for Him, not one ! ” 

Groping with tear-blinded eyes towards the 
tomb, the boy stretched his arms lovingly around 
the great stone that stopped its entrance; then 
suddenly realizing that he could never go any 
closer to the One inside, never see Him again, he 
leaned his head hopelessly against the rock, and 
gave way to his feeling of utter loneliness and 
despair. 

How long he stood there, he did not know. 
When he looked up again, the women had gone, 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


227 


and it was nearly dark. Phineas and several 
other men lingered in the black shadows of the 
trees, and Joel joined them. 

Eoman guards came presently. A stout cord 
was stretched across the stone, its ends firmly 
fastened, and sealed with the seal of Caesar. A 
watch-fire was kindled near by ; then the Roman 
sentinels began their steady tramp ! tramp! as 
they paced back and forth. 

High overhead the stars began to set their 
countless watch-fires in the heavens; then the 
white full moon of the Passover looked down, and 
all night long kept its silent vigil over the for¬ 
saken tomb of the sleeping Christ. 

Abigail had found shelter for the night with 
friends, in a tent just outside the city; but Joel 
and Phineas took their way back to Bethany. 

Little was said as they trudged along in the 
moonlight. Joel thought only of one thing, — 
his great loss, the love of which he had been 
bereft. But to Phineas this death meant much 
more than the separation from the best of friends; 
it meant the death of a cause on which he had 
staked his all. He must go back to Galilee to 
be the laughing-stock of his old neighbors. He 
who they trusted would have saved Israel had 


228 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


been put to death as a felon, — crucified between 
two thieves! The cause was lost; he was left 
to face an utter failure. 

When the moon went down that morning over 
the hills of Judea, there were many hearts that 
mourned the Man of Nazareth, but not a soul in 
all the universe believed on Him as the Son of 
God. 

Hope lay dead in the tomb of Joseph, with a 
great stone forever walling it in. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


AKE up, Joel! Wake up! I bring 
you good tidings, my lad! ” It was 
Abigail’s voice ringing cheerily 
through the court-yard, as she bent 
over the boy, fast asleep on the hard stones. 

All the long Sabbath day after the burial, he 
had sat listlessly in the shady court-yard, his 
blank gaze fixed on the opposite wall. No one 
seemed able to arouse him from his apathy. He 
turned away from the food they brought him, 
and refused to enter the house when night came. 

Towards morning he had gone over to the 
fountain for a long draught of its cool water; 
then overcome by weakness from his continued 
fast, and exhausted by grief, he fell asleep on 
the pavement. 

Abigail came in and found him there, with the 
red morning sun beating full in his face. She 
had to shake him several times before she could 
make him open his eyes. 



230 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


He sat up dizzily, and tried to collect his 
thoughts. Then he remembered, and laid his 
head wearily down again, with a groan. 

“Wake up! Wake up!” she insisted, with 
such eager gladness in her voice that Joel 
opened his eyes again, now fully aroused. 

“ What is it ? ” he asked indifferently. 

“ He is risen l" she exclaimed joyfully, clasping 
her hands as she always did when much excited. 
“ I went to His tomb very early in the morn¬ 
ing, while it was yet dark, with Mary and 
Salome and some other women. The stone had 
been rolled aside ; and while we wondered and 
wept, fearing His enemies had stolen Him away, 
He stood before us, with His old greeting on His 
lips, — ‘ All hail! ’ ” 

Joel rubbed his eyes and looked at her. “ No, 
no ! ” he said wearily, “ I am dreaming again ! ” 

He would have thrown himself on the ground 
as before, his head pillowed on his arm, but she 
would not let him. She shook his hands with a 
persistence that could not be refused, talking to 
him all the while in such a glad eager voice 
that he slowly began to realize that something 
had made her very happy. 

“ What is it, Mother Abigail ? ,7 he asked, 
much puzzled. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 231 

“I do not wonder you are bewildered,” she 
cried. “It is such blessed, such wonderful 
news. Why He is alive , Joel, He whom Thou 
lovest! Try to understand it, my boy ! I have 
just now come from the empty tomb. 1 saw 
Him ! I spoke with Him ! I knelt at His feet 
and worshipped! ” 

By this time all the family had come out. 
Reuben looked at his daughter pityingly, as she 
repeated her news; then he turned to Phineas. 

“ Poor thing ! ” he said, in a low tone. “ She 
has witnessed such terrible scenes lately, and 
received such a severe shock, that her mind is 
affected by it. She does not know what she is 
saying. Did not you yourself help prepare the 
body for burial, and put it in the tomb ? ” 

“ Yes,” answered Phineas, “ and helped close 
it with a great stone, which no one man could 
possibly move by himself. And I saw it sealed 
with the seal of Caesar; and when I left it was 
guarded by Roman sentinels in armor. No man 
could have opened it.” 

“ But Abigail talks of angels who sat in the 
empty tomb, and who told them He had risen,” 
replied her father. 

Joel, who had overheard this low-toned con¬ 
versation, got up and stood close beside them. 


232 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


He had begun to tremble from weakness and 
excitement. 

“ Father Phineas,” he asked, “ do you re¬ 
member the story” we heard from the old shep¬ 
herd, Heber? The angels told of His birth; 
maybe she did see them in His tomb.” 

“ How can such things be ? ” queried Reuben, 
stroking his beard in perplexity. 

“ That’s just what you said when Rabbi 
Lazarus was brought back to life/’ piped Jesse’s 
shrill voice, quite unexpectedly, at his grand¬ 
father’s elbow. He had not lost a word of the 
conversation. “Why don’t you go and see for 
yourself if the tomb is empty ? ” 

Abigail had gone into the house with her 
mother, and now the summons to breakfast 
greeted them. She saw she could not convince 
them of the truth of her story, so she said no 
more about it; but her happy face was more 
eloquent than words. 

All day snatches of song kept rising to her 
lips, — old psalms of thanksgiving, and half whis¬ 
pered hallelujahs. At last Joel and Phineas were 
both so much affected by her continued cheerful¬ 
ness, that they began to believe there must be 
some great cause for it. 

Finally, in the waning afternoon, they took 



“‘THE STONE IS GONE!’” 














JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 233 

the road that led from Bethany to the garden 
where they firmly believed that the Master still 
lay buried. 

As they came in sight of the tomb, Joel 
clutched Phineas by the arm, and pointed, with 
a shaking finger, to the dark opening ahead of 
of them. 

“ See! ” he said, pointing into its yawning 
darkness. “ She was right! The stone is gone ! ” 

It was some time before they could muster 
up courage to go nearer and look into the 
sepulchre. When at last they did so, neither 
spoke a word, but, after one startled look into 
each other’s eyes, turned and left the garden. 

It was growing dark as they hurried along 
the highway homeward. Two men came half 
running towards the city, in great haste to reach 
the gates before they should be closed for the 
night. They were two disciples well known to 
Phineas. 

He stopped them with the question that was 
uppermost in his mind. 

“ Yes, He is risen,” answered one of the men, 
breathlessly. “We have seen Him. Hosanna 
to the Highest! He walked along this road 
with us as we went to Emmaus.” 

“ Ah, how our hearts burned as He talked 


234 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


with us by the way! ’’ interrupted the other 
man. 

“ Only this hour He sat at meat with us/’ cried 
the first speaker. “ He broke bread with us, and 
blessed it as He always used to do. We are 
running back to the city now to tell the other 
disciples.” 

Phineas would have laid a detaining hand on 
them, but they hurried on, and left him standing 
in the road, looking wistfully after them. 

“ It must be true/’ said Joel, “ or they could 
not have been so nearly wild with joy.’’ 

Phineas sadly shook his head. “ I wish I 
could think so,” he sighed. 

“ Let us go home,” urged Abigail, the next day, 
“ the Master has bidden His brethren meet Him 
in Galilee. Let us go. There is hope of seeing 
Him again in our old home ! ’’ 

Joel, now nearly convinced of the truth of 
her belief, was also anxious to go. But Phineas 
lingered; his plodding mind was slower to 
grasp such thoughts than the sensitive woman’s 
or the imaginative boy’s. One after another he 
sought out Peter and James and John, and the 
other disciples who had seen the risen Master, 
and questioned them closely. Still he tarried 
for another week. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 235 

One morning he met Thomas, whose doubts 
all along had strengthened his own. He ran 
against him in the crowded street in Jerusalem. 
Thomas seized his arm, and, turning, walked 
beside him a few paces. 

“ It is true! ” he said, in a low intense tone, 
with his lips close to his ear. “ I saw Him my¬ 
self last night; I held His hands in mine! I 
touched the side the spear had pierced! He 
called me by name; and I know now beyond all 
doubt that the Master has risen from the dead, 
and that He is the Son of God ! ” 

After that, Phineas no longer objected when 
it was proposed that they should go back to 
Galilee. The story of the resurrection was too 
great for him to grasp entirely, still he could not 
put aside such a weight of evidence that came 
to him from friends whose word he had always 
implicitly trusted. 

The roads were still full of pilgrims returning 
from the Passover. As Phineas journeyed on 
with his little family, he fell in with the sons of 
Jonah and Zebedee, going back to their nets 
and their fishing-boats. 

The order of procession was constantly shift¬ 
ing, and one morning Joel found himself walking 
beside John, one of the chosen twelve, who 


236 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


seemed to have understood his Master better 
than any of the others. 

The man seemed wrapped in deep thought, 
and took no notice of his companion, till Joel 
timidly touched his sleeve. 

“ Do you believe it is true?” the boy asked. 

There was no surprise in the man’s face at the 
abrupt question, he felt, without asking, what 
Joel meant. A reassuring smile lighted up his 
face as he laid his hand kindly on Joel’s 
shoulder. 

“ I know it, my lad; I have been with Him.” 
The quiet positiveness with which he spoke 
seemed to destroy Joel’s last doubt. 

“ Many things that He said to us come back 
to me very clearly; and I see now He was trying 
to prepare us for this.” 

“ Tell me about them,” begged Joel, “ and about 
those last hours He was with you. Oh, if I could 
only have been with Him, too! ” 

John saw the tears gathering in the boy’s eyes, 
heard the tremble in his voice, and felt a thrill of 
sympathy as he recognized a kindred love in the 
little fellow’s heart. 

So he told Joel of the last supper they had 
taken together, of the hymn they had sung, and 
of the watch they had failed to keep, when He 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 237 

took them with Him into the garden of Geth- 
semane. All the little incidents connected with 
those last solemn hours, he repeated carefully to 
the listening boy. 

From time to time Joel brushed his hand 
across his eyes; but a deep calm fell over him 
as John's voice went on, slowly repeating the 
words the Master had comforted them with. 

“ Let not your hearts be troubled : ye believe 
in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house 
are many mansions. ... I go to prepare a place 
for you. I will come again, and receive you 
unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be 
also. ... If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, be¬ 
cause I said, I go unto the Father. . . . These 
things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye 
might have peace. In the world ye shall have 
tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have over¬ 
come the world.” 

Joel made an exclamation as if about to speak, 
and then stopped. “ What is it ? ” asked John. 

“ How could He mean that He has overcome 
the world ? Caesar still rules, and Jerusalem is 
full of His enemies. I can’t forget that they 
killed Him, even if He has risen.” 

John stooped to tie his sandal before he ar 
swered. 


238 JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 

“ I have been fitting together different things 
He told us; and I begin to see how blind we were. 
Once He called Himself the Good Shepherd who 
would give his life for his sheep, and said, ‘ There¬ 
fore doth my Father love me, because I lay down 
my life that I might take it again. No man 
taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. 
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to 
take it again.’ ” 

They walked on in silence a few paces, then 
John asked abruptly, “ Do you remember about 
the children of Israel being so badly bitten by 
serpents in the wilderness, and how Moses was 
commanded to set up a brazen serpent in their 
midst ? ” 

“ Yes, indeed ! ” answered Joel. “ All who 
looked up at it were saved; but those who would 
not died from the poisonous bites.” 

“ One night,” continued John, “ a learned man 
by the name of Nicodemus, one of the rulers, 
came to the Master with many questions. And 
I remember one of the answers He gave him. 
‘ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder¬ 
ness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 
that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life.’ We did not 
understand Him then at all. Not till I saw Him 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


239 


lifted up on the cruel cross, did I begin to dimly 
see what He meant.” 

A light broke over Joel’s face as he remem¬ 
bered the vision he had had that day, kneeling at 
the foot of the cross ; then he stopped still in 
the road, with his hands clasped in dismay. There 
suddenly seemed to rise before him the scenes of 
daily sacrifice in the Temple, when the blood of 
innocent lambs flowed over the altar; then he 
thought of the great Day of Atonement, when 
the poor scape-goat was driven away to its death, 
laden with the sins of the people. 

“ Oh, that must be what Isaiah meant! ” he 
cried in distress. “ ‘ He was brought as a lamb 
to the slaughter! ’ Oh, can it be possible that 
‘ the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all’ ? 
What an awful sacrifice ! ” 

The tears streamed down his face as the thought 
came over him with overwhelming conviction, 
that it was for him that the man he loved so had 
endured all the horrible suffering of death by 
crucifixion. 

“ Why did such a thing have to be ? ” he asked, 
looking up appealingly at his companion. 

John looked out and up, as if he saw far be¬ 
yond the narrow, hill-bound horizon, and quoted 
softly : u For God so loved the world , that He gave 


240 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting lifer 

Just as the feeling had come to him that 
morning by the Galilee, and again as he gazed 
and gazed into the white face on the cross, Joel 
seemed to feel again the love of the Father, as it 
took him close into its infinite keeping. 

u ‘ Greater love hath no man than this/ ” quoted 
John again, “ ‘ that a man lay down his life for 
his friends.’ He is the propitiation for our sins; 
and not ours only, but also for the sins of the 
whole world.” 

It was hard for the child to understand this at 
first; but this gentle disciple who walked beside 
him had walked long beside the Master, and in the 
Master’s own way and words taught Joel life’s 
greatest lesson. 


CHAPTER XIX. 



[g^HEY went back to their simple lives 
again, — those hardy fishermen, the 
busy carpenter, and the boy. Phineas 
was silent and grave. For him, hope 
still lay dead in that garden tomb near Golgotha; 
but Joel sang as he worked. 

The appointed time was nearing when the 
Master was to meet them on the mountain. As 
often as he could, Joel stole away from the moody 
man at the work-bench, and went down to the 
beach for more cheerful companionship. 

One morning, seeing a fishing-boat that he 
recognized pulling in quickly to shore, he ran 
down to see what luck his friends had had during 
the night. 

He held up his hands in astonishment at the 
great haul of fish the boat held. 

“We have been with the Master,” explained 
one of the men. “We toiled all night, and took 
nothing till we met Him.” 

Joel listened eagerly while they told him of 

that meeting in the early dawn, and of the meal 
16 




242 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


they ate together, while the sun came up over 
the Galilee, and the blue waves whispered their 
gladness to the beach, as they heard the Master’s 
voice once more. 

“ Oh, to think that He is in Galilee again ! ” 
exclaimed Joel. That thought added purpose 
and meaning to each new day. Every morning 
he woke with the feeling, “ Maybe I shall see 
Him before the sun goes down.” Every night 
he went to sleep saying, “ He is somewhere near! 
No telling how soon I may be with Him! ” 

When the day came on which they were to go 
to the mountain, Joel was up very early in the 
morning. He bathed and dressed himself with 
the care of a priest about to enter the inner courts 
on some holy errand. 

When he started to the mountain, Abigail 
noticed that he wore his finest headdress of white 
linen. His tunic was spotless, and, from the cor¬ 
ners of his brown and white striped mantle, the 
blue fringes that the Law prescribed hung smooth 
as silk. 

He did not wait for Phineas or any of his 
friends. Long before the time, he had climbed 
the rocky path, and was sitting all alone in the 
deep shadowed stillness. 

The snapping of a twig startled him; the fall- 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


243 


ing of a leaf made him look up hopefully. Any 
minute the Master might come. 

His heart beat so loud it seemed to him that 
the wood-birds overhead must surely hear it, and 
be frightened away. 

Imagine that scene, you who can, — you who 
have just seen the earth close over your best- 
beloved ; who have awakened in the lonely 
night, with that sudden sickening remembrance 
of loss; who have longed, with a longing like a 
constant ache, for the voice and the smile and 
the footstep that have slipped hopelessly beyond 
recall. 

Think of what it would mean, if you knew now, 
beyond doubt, that all that you had loved and 
lost would be given back to you before the pass¬ 
ing of another hour! 

So Joel waited, restless, burning, all in a quiver 
of expectancy. 

Steps began to wind around the base of the 
mountain. One familiar face after another came 
in sight, then strange ones, until, by and by, 
five hundred people had gathered there, and 
were sitting in reverent, unbroken silence. The 
soft summer wind barely stirred the leaves ; even 
the twitter of nestlings overhead was hushed. 

After awhile, thrilled by some unseen influence, 


244 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


as a field of grain is swayed by the passing wind, 
they bowed their heads. The Master stood before 
them, His hands outspread in blessing. 

Joel started forward with a wild desire to throw 
himself at His feet, and put his arms around them; 
but a majesty he had never seen before in that 
gentle face restrained him. 

He listened to the voice as it rose and fell with 
all its old winning tenderness. As you would 
listen could the dead lips you love move again; 
as you would greedily snatch up every word, 
and hide it in your heart of hearts, so Joel 
listened. 

“ I go to prepare a place for you. I will come 
again and receive you unto myself, that where I 
am there ye may be also. . . . Peace I leave 
with you. . . . Not as the world giveth, give 
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, 
neither let it be afraid.” 

As the beloved voice went on, promising the 
Comforter that should come when He was gone, 
all the dread and pain of the coming separation 
seemed to be lost. 

Boy though he was, Joel looked down the 
years of his life feeling it was only a fleeting 
shadow, compared with the eternal companion¬ 
ship just promised him. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


245 


He would make no moan ; he would utter no 
complaint: but he would take up his life’s little 
day, and bear it after the Master, — a cup of 
loving service, — into that upper kingdom where 
there was a place prepared for him. 

It was all over so soon. They were left alone 
on the mountain-side again, with only the sun¬ 
shine flickering through the leaves, and the wood- 
birds just beginning to trill to each other once 
more. But the warm air seemed to still throb with 
the last words He had spoken: “ Lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world.” 

Phineas came down the mountain with his face 
all asliine ; at last his eyes had been opened. 

“ He and the Father are one ! ” he exclaimed 
to the man walking beside him. “ That voice is 
the same that spake from the midst of the burn¬ 
ing bush, and from the summit of Sinai. All 
these years I have followed the Master, I be¬ 
lieved Him to be a perfect man and a great 
prophet; I believed Him to be ‘ the rod out of 
the stem of Jesse ’ who through Jehovah’s hand 
was to redeem Israel, even as the rod in Aaron’s 
hand smote the floods and made a pathway for 
our people. 

“ When I saw Him put to death as a felon, all 
hope died within me; even to-day I came out 


246 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


here unbelieving. I could not think that I should 
see Him. How blind we have been all these years ! 
God with us in the flesh, and we did not know 
Him! ” 

Joel walked on behind the two, sharing their 
feeling of exaltation. As they came down into 
the valley and entered Capernaum, the work-a- 
day sights and noises seemed to jar on their senses, 
in this uplifted mood. 

A man standing in an open doorway accosted 
Phineas, and asked when he could commence 
work on the house he had talked to him about 
building. 

Phineas hesitated, and looked down at the 
ground, as if studying some difficult problem. In 
a few minutes lie raised his eyes with a look of 
decision. 

“I cannot build it for you at all,” he answered. 

“ Not build it! ” echoed the man. 44 I thought 
you were anxious for the job.” 

44 So I was,” answered the carpenter; 44 but 
when I asked for it, I had no belief that the 
Master could rise from the dead. Just now, on 
the mountain yonder, I have been with Him. 
His command is still ringing in my ears: 4 Go ye 
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature ! 9 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


247 


“ Henceforth I give my life to Him, even as He 
gave His to me. My days are now half spent, 
but every remaining one shall be used to pro¬ 
claim, as far and wide as possible, that the risen 
Christ is the Son of God ! ” 

The man was startled as he looked at Phineas; 
such a fire of love and purpose seemed to illu¬ 
minate his earnest face that it was completely 
transformed. 

u Even now,” exclaimed Phineas, “ will I com¬ 
mence my mission. You are the first one I have 
met, and I must tell to you this glad new gospel. 
He died for you ! ‘ God so loved the world, that 
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life ! ’ 0 my friend, if you could 

only believe that as I believe it! ” 

The man shrank back into the doorway, 
strangely moved by the passionate force of his 
earnestness. 

“I must go up to Jerusalem,” continued 
Phineas, “ and wait till power is given us from 
on high; then I can more clearly see my way. I 
do not know whether I shall be directed to go into 
other lands, or to come back here to carry the 
news to my old neighbors. But it matters not 
which path is pointed out, the mission has been 


248 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 


already given, — to tell the message to every 
creature my voice can reach.” 

“ And you ? ” asked the man, pointing to the 
companion of Phineas. 

“ I, too, received the command,’* was the 
answer, “ and I, too, am ready to go to the world’s 
end, if need be ! ” 

“ Surely there must be truth in what you say,” 
muttered the man. Then his glance fell on Joel. 
“ You, too ? ” he questioned. 

“ Nay, he is but a lad,” answered Phineas, 
before Joel could find words to answer him. 
“ Come ! we must hasten home.” 

Joel talked little during the next few days, and 
stole away often to think by himself, in the quiet 
little upper chamber on the roof. 

Phineas was making his preparations to go back 
to Jerusalem; and he urged the boy to go back 
with him, and accept Simon’s offer. Abigail, too, 
added her persuasions to his; and even old Rabbi 
Amos came down one day, and sat for an hour 
under the fig-trees, painting in glowing colors the 
life that might be his for the choosing. 

It was a very alluring prospect; it had been 
the dream of his life to travel in far countries. 
He pictured himself surrounded by wealth and 
culture ; he would be able to do so much for his 


JOEL: A BOY OF GALILEE. 249 

old friends. He could give back to Jesse and 
Ruth a hundred fold, what had been bestowed on 
him; and the poor — how much he could help 
them, when he received a son’s portion from the 
wealthy Simon ! 0 the hearts he could make 

glad, all up and down the land! 

The old day-dreams he used to delight in danced 
temptingly before him. As he stood idly beside 
the work-bench one afternoon, thinking of such a 
future, a soft step behind him made him turn. 
The hammer fell from his hand to the grass, as he 
saw the woman who came timidly to meet him. 

“ Why, Aunt Leah! ” he cried. “ What brought 
you here ? ” 

He had not seen her since the night his Uncle 
Laban had driven him from home. 

She drew aside her veil, and looked at him. 
“ I heard you had been healed,” she said, “ and I 
have always wanted to come and see you, and 
tell you how glad I am; but my husband forbade 
it. Child! ” she cried abruptly, “ how much 
you look like your father! The likeness is 
startling! ” 

The discovery seemed to make her forget what 
she had come to say, and she stood and stared at 
him; then she remembered. “Rabbi Amos 
told me of the offer you have had from a rich 


250 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


merchant in Bethany, and I came down here, 
secretly, to beg you to accept it. In your 
fathers name I beg you! ” 

Joel looked perplexed. “ I hardly know what 
to do,” he said. “ Every one advises me just as 
you do; but I feel that they are all wrong. 
Surely the Master meant me as well as father 
Phineas and the others, when He charged us to 
go and preach the gospel to every creature.” 

A sudden interest came into the woman's face; 
she took a step forward. “ Joel, did you see Him 
after He was risen ? ” 

“ Yes,” he answered. 

u Oh, I believe then that He is the Christ! ” 
she cried. u I have thought all the time that it 
might be so, and the children are so sure of 
it.” 

“ And Uncle Laban?” questioned Joel. 

She shook her head sadly. “ He grows more 
bitterly opposed every day.” 

“ Aunt Leah,” he asked, coming back to the 
first question, “ don’t you think He must have 
meant me as well as those men ? ” 

“ Oh, hardly,” she said, hesitatingly, "you are 
so young, and there are so many others to do 
it; it would surely be better for you to go to 
Bethany.” 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


251 


After she had gone home, he put away his 
tools, and, like one in a dream, started slowly 
towards the mountain. 

The same summer stillness reigned on its shady 
slopes as when the five hundred had gathered 
there. He climbed up near the summit, and sat 
down on a high stone. 

To the eastward the Galilee glittered like a 
sapphire in the sun; Capernaum seemed like a 
great ant-hill in commotion. No wonder he 
could not think among all those conflicting 
voices; he was glad he had come up where it 
was so still. 

Phineas was going away in the morning. If 
Joel went also, maybe he would never look 
down on that scene again. 

Then almost as if some living voice broke the 
stillness, he heard the words: “ Go ye into all 
the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature ! ” It was the echo of the words that 
had fallen from the Master’s lips. Nothing once 
uttered by that voice can ever die; it lives on 
and on in the ever-widening circles of the 
centuries, as a ripple, once started, rings shore¬ 
ward through the seas. 

In that instant all the things he had been consid¬ 
ering seemed so small and worthless. He had been 


252 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


planning to give Simon’s gold and silver to the 
poor; but the Master had given them His life, 
Himself ! Could he do less ? 

“ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least 
of these, ye have done it unto me,” something 
seemed to say to him. Yes ; he could do it for the 
Master’s sake, for the One who had healed him, 
for the One who had died for him. 

Then and there, high up in the mountain’s 
solitudes, he found the path he was to follow ; 
and then he wondered how he could have thought 
for an instant of making any other choice. It 
was the path the Master’s own feet had trod, 
and the boy who had followed, knew well what 
a weary way it led. 

For his great love’s sake, he gave up the old 
ambitions, the self-centred hopes, saying, in a 
low tone, as if he felt the beloved Presence very 
near, “ Oh, I want to serve Thee truly ! If I 
am too young now to go out into all the world, let 
me be Thy little cup-bearer here at home, to 
carry the story of Thy life and love to those 
around me!” 

The west was all alight with the glory of the 
sunset; somewhere beyond its burnished portals 
lay the City of the King. Joel turned from its 
dazzling depths to look downward into the valley. 


JOEL : A BOY OF GALILEE. 


253 


He had chosen persecution and sacrifice and 
suffering, he knew, but the light on his face was 
more than the halo of the summer sunset. 

As he went down the mountain to his life of 
lowly service, a deep peace fell warm across his 
heart; for the promise went with him, a staff to 
bear him up through all his after life’s long pil¬ 
grimage : “ Lo, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN 
UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD ! ” 


THE END 














BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 
The Little Colonel Stories. By Annie 

Fellows Johnston. 

Being three “ Little Colonel ” stories in the Cosy 
Corner Series, “ The Little Colonel,” “ Two Little 
Knights of Kentucky,” and “ The Giant Scissors,” put 
into a single volume, owing to the popular demand for a 
uniform series of the stories dealing with one of the 
most popular of juvenile heroines. 

i vol., large i2mo, cloth decorative, fully illus¬ 
trated.$1-50 

The Little Colonel’s House Party. 

By Annie Fellows Johnston. Illustrated by 
Louis Meynell. 

One vol., library i2mo, cloth, decorative cover $1.00 

The Little Colonel’s Holidays. By 

Annie Fellows Johnston. Illustrated by L. J. 
Bridgman. 

One vol., large i2mo, cloth, decorative cover . $1.50 

The Little Colonel’s Hero. By Annie 

Fellows Johnston. Illustrated by E. B. Barry. 
One vol., large i2mo, cloth decorative, 

$1.20 net (postage extra) 

The Little Colonel at Boarding 

School. By Annie Fellows Johnston. Illus¬ 
trated by E. B. Barry. 

1 vol., large i2mo, cloth . $1.20 ^/(postage extra) 

Since the time of “ Little Women,” no juvenile heroine 
has been better beloved of her child readers than Mrs. 
Johnston’s “ Little Colonel.” Each succeeding book has 
been more popular than its predecessor, and now thou¬ 
sands of little readers wait patiently each year for the 
appearance of “ the new Little Colonel Book.” 



L. C PAGE AND COMPANY'S 


o 


Beautiful Joe’s Paradise; or, the island 

of Brotherly Love. A sequel to “ Beautiful Joe.” 
By Marshall Saunders, author of “ Beautiful Joe,” 
“ For His Country,” etc. With fifteen full-page plates 
and many decorations from drawings by Charles Liv¬ 
ingston Bull. 

One vol., library i2mo, cloth decorative, 

$ 1.20 net , postpaid, $1.32 
“Will be immensely enjoyed by the boys and girls who 
read it.” — Pittsburg Gazette. 

“ Miss Saunders has put life, humor, action, and tenderness 
into her story. The book deserves to be a favorite.” — 
Chicago Record-Herald. 

“ This book revives the spirit of ‘ Beautiful Joe’ capitally. 
It is fairly riotous with fun, and as a whole is about as un¬ 
usual as anything in the animal book line that has seen the 
light. It is a book for juveniles — old and young.” — Phila¬ 
delphia Item. 

’Tilda Jane. By Marshall Saunders, author 
of “ Beautiful Joe,” etc. 

One vol., i2mo, fully illustrated, cloth, decorative 
cover.$1.50 

“No more amusing and attractive child’s story has ap¬ 
peared for a long time than this quaint and curious recital of 
the adventures of that pitiful and charming little runaway. 

“ It is one of those exquisitely simple and truthful books 
that win and charm the reader, and I did not put it down 
until I had finished it — honest! And I am sure that every 
one, young or old, who reads will be proud and happy to 
make the acquaintance of the delicious waif. 

“ I cannot think of any better book for children than this. 
I commend it unreservedly.” — Cyrus Townsend Brady. 

The Story of the Graveleys. By mar- 

shall Saunders, author of “ Beautiful Joe’s Para¬ 
dise,” “ ’Tilda Jane,” etc. 

Library i2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated by E. B. 
Barry .... $1.20 net (postage extra) 

Here we have the haps and mishaps, the trials and 
triumphs, of a delightful New England family, of whose 
devotion and sturdiness it will do the reader good to 
hear. From the kindly, serene-souled grandmother to 
the buoyant madcap, Berty, these Graveleys are folk of 
fibre and blood — genuine human beings. 






BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


3 


Little Lady Marjorie. By Frances Mar¬ 
garet Fox, author of “Farmer Brown and the 
Birds,” etc. 

12mo, cloth, illustrated . $1.20 net (postage extra) 

A charming story for children between the ages of 
ten and fifteen years, with both heart and nature interest. 

The Sandman : his farm stories. By 

William J. Hopkins. With fifty illustrations by 
Ada Clendenin Williamson. 

One vol., large i2mo, decorative cover, 

$1.20 net , postpaid, $1.38 
“ An amusing, original book, written for the benefit of 
children not more than six years old, is ‘ The Sandman : His 
Farm Stories.’ It should be one of the most popular of the 
year’s books for reading to small children.” — Buffalo Express. 

“ Mothers and fathers and kind elder sisters who take the 
little ones to bed and rack their brains for stories will find this 
book a treasure.” — Cleveland Leader. 

The Sandman: more farm stories. By 
William J. Hopkins, author of “ The Sandman: 
His Farm Stories.” 

Library i2mo, cloth decorative, fully illustrated, 

$1 .20 net (postage extra) 
Mr. Hopkins’s first essay at bedtime stories has met 
with such approval that this second book of “ Sandman ” 
tales has been issued for scores of eager children. Life 
on the farm, and out-of-doors, will be portrayed in his 
inimitable manner, and many a little one will hail the 
bedtime season as one of delight. 

A Puritan Knight Errant. By Edith 

Robinson, author of “ A Little Puritan Pioneer,” “ A 
Little Puritan’s First Christmas,” “ A Little Puritan 
Rebel,” etc. 

Library i2mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, 

#1.20 net (postage extra) 
The charm of style and historical value of Miss 
Robinson’s previous stories of child life in Puritan days 
have brought them wide popularity. Her latest and 
most important book appeals to a large juvenile public. 
The “ knight errant ” of this story is a little Don Quixote, 
whose trials and their ultimate outcome will prove 
deeply interesting to their reader. 



4 


Z. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 


The Great Scoop. By Molly Elliot Sea- 

well, author of “ Little Jarvis,” “ Laurie Vane,” etc. 
i2mo, cloth, with illustrations . . . $1.00 

A capital tale of newspaper life in a big city, and of 
a bright, enterprising, likable youngster employed therein. 
Every boy with an ounce of true boyish blood in him 
will have the time of his life in reading how Dick Hen- 
shaw entered the newspaper business, and how he 
secured “ the great scoop.” 


Flip’s “ Islands of Providence.” By 

Annie Fellows Johnston, author of “Asa 
Holmes,” “ The Little Colonel,” etc. 
i 2 mo, cloth, with illustrations . . . $1.00 

In this book the author of “ The Little Colonel ” and 
her girl friends and companions shows that she is 
equally at home in telling a tale in which the leading 
character is a boy, and in describing his troubles and 
triumphs in a way that will enhance her reputation as a 
skilled and sympathetic writer of stories for children. 


Songs and Rhymes for the Little 

Ones. Compiled by Mary Whitney Morri¬ 
son (Jenny Wallis). 

New edition, with an introduction by Mrs. A. D. T. 
Whitney and eight illustrations. 

One vol., large i2mo, cloth decorative . . $1.00 

No better description of this admirable book can be 
given than Mrs. Whitney’s happy introduction: 

“ One might almost as well offer June roses with the 
assurance of their sweetness, as to present this lovely 
little gathering of verse, which announces itself, like 
them, by its deliciousness. Yet, as Mrs. Morrison’s 
charming volume has long been a delight to me, I am 
only too happy to link my name with its new and en¬ 
riched form in this slight way, and simply declare that it 
is to me the most bewitching book of songs for little 
people that I have ever known.” 




BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 5 

PHYLLIS' FIELD FRIENDS SERIES 

By LENORE E. MULETS 

Four vols., cloth decorative, illustrated. Sold sepa¬ 
rately, or as a set. 

Per volume.$0.80 net 

Per set.$3.20 net 

1. Insect Stories; 

2. Stories of Little Animals. 

3. Flower Stories. 

4. Bird Stories. 

In this series of four little Nature books, it is the 
author’s intention so to present to the child reader the 
facts about each particular flower, insect, bird, or 
animal, in story form, as to make delightful reading of 
the facts of science, which the child is to verify through 
his field lessons and experiences. Classical legends, 
myths, poems and songs are so presented as to correlate 
fully with these lessons, to which the excellent illustra¬ 
tions are no little help. 

THE WOODRANGER TALES 

By G. WALDO BROWNE 

The Woodranger. 

The Young Gunbearer. 

The Hero of the Hills. 

Each i vol., large i2mo, cloth, decorative 
cover, illustrated, per volume . . . . $1.00 

Three vols., boxed, per set . . . $3.00 

“ The Woodranger Tales,” like the “ Pathfinder 
Tales” of J. Fenimore Cooper, combine historical in¬ 
formation relating to early pioneer days in America with 
interesting adventures in the backwoods. Although the 
same characters are continued throughout the series, 
each book is complete in itself, and while based strictly 
on historical facts, is an interesting and exciting tale of 
adventure which will delight all boys and be by no means 
unwelcome to their elders. 




6 


Z. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 


The Rosamond Tales. By Cuyler Reyn¬ 
olds, With 30 full-page illustrations from original 
photographs, and with a frontispiece from a drawing 
by Maud Humphreys. 

One vol., large i2mo, cloth decorative . . $1.50 

These are just the bedtime stories that children always 
ask for, but do not always get. Rosamond and Rosa¬ 
lind are the hero and heroine of many happy adventures 
in town and on their grandfather’s farm; and the happy 
listeners to their story will unconsciously absorb a vast 
amount of interesting knowledge of birds, animals, and 
flowers. The book will be a boon to tired mothers, and 
a delight to wide-awake children. 


Larry Hudson’s Ambition. By James 

Otis, author of “ Toby Tyler,” etc. Illustrated by 
Eliot Keen. 

One vol., library i2mo, cloth, decorative cover, $1.25 
James Otis, who has delighted the juvenile public 
with so many popular stories, has written the story of 
the rise of the bootblack Larry. Larry is not only 
capable of holding his own and coming out with flying 
colors in the amusing adventures wherein he befriends 
the family of good Deacon Doak; he also has the 
signal ability to know what he wants and to understand 
that hard work is necessary to win. 


Black Beauty ; The Autobiography of a 

Horse. By Anna Sewell. New Illustrated 
Edition. With nineteen full-page drawings by Wini¬ 
fred Austin. 

One vol., large i2mo, cloth decorative, gilt top, $1.25 
There have been many editions of this classic, but we 
confidently offer this one as the most appropriate and 
handsome yet produced. The illustrations are of special 
value and beauty. Miss Austin is a lover of horses, and 
has delighted in tracing with her pen the beauty and 
grace of the noble animal. 





BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 


7 


The Story of Kate. A Tale of California 
Life for Girls. By Pauline Bradford Mackie. 
Illustrations by L. J. Bridgman. 

One vol., library i2mo, cloth, 

$1.20 net, postpaid, $1.32 
“ One of the most charming books of the season for girls, 
is this, with its lovable characters and entertaining adven¬ 
tures.”— Albany Times Union. 

“ Pauline Bradford Mackie’s new story is one of genuine 
delight, and scarcely a better volume could be purchased for 
girls.” — Boston Journal. 

Ye Lyttle Salem Maide : A Story of 
Witchcraft. By Pauline Bradford Mackie. 
New Illustrated Edition. 

One vol., large i2mo, cloth, gilt top . . $1.50 

“ The beauty of the story lies in its simplicity and pathos 
mingled with the lighter vein of humor.” — Toledo Blade. 

“No one can read the story without being profoundly 
stirred.” — Baltimore Herald. 

“Full of color and fine feeling.” — Albany Argus. 

In Kings’ Houses : a tale of the days of 
Queen Anne. By Julia C. R. Dorr. New Illus¬ 
trated Edition. 

One vol., large i2mo, cloth, gilt top . . $1.50 

“We close the book with a wish that the author may write 
more of the history of England, which she knows so well.” — 
Bookman , New York. 

“A story with a charm that will hardly be withstood.” — 
Kansas City Times. 

“ A fine, strong story which it is a relief to come upon. 
Related with charming simple art.” — Public Ledger , Phila¬ 
delphia. 

Gulliver’s Bird Book. Being the Newly 
Discovered Strange Adventures of Lemuel 
Gulliver, Now for the First Time Described 
and Illustrated. By L. J. Bridgman, author of 
“ Mother Goose and Her Wild Beast Show,” etc. 
With upwards of 100 illustrations in color, large 
quarto, cloth ....... $1.50 

This is a most amusing and original book, illustrated 
with startlingly odd and clever drawings. “ Gulliver’s 
Bird Book ” will prove a source of entertainment to 
children of all ages, and should prove one of the leading 
color juveniles of the season. 



THE LITTLE COUSIN SERIES 

The most delightful and interesting accounts possible 
of child-life in other lands, filled with quaint sayings^ 
doings, and adventures. 

Each i vol., i2mo, decorative cover, cloth, with six 
full-page illustrations in color by L. J. Bridgman. 

Price per volume . . $0.50 «<?/, postpaid 50.56 

“ Juveniles will get a whole world of pleasure and instruc¬ 
tion out of Mary Hazelton Wade’s Little Cousin Series. . . . 
Pleasing narratives give pictures of the little folk in the far¬ 
away lands in their duties and pleasures, showing their odd 
ways of playing, studying, their queer homes, clothes, and 
playthings. . . . The style of the stories is all that can be 
desired for entertainment, the author describing things in a 
very real and delightful fashion.” — Detroit News-Tribune. 

By MARY HAZELTON WADE 

Our Little Swiss Cousin. 

Our Little Norwegian Cousin. 

Our Little Italian Cousin. 

Our Little Siamese Cousin. 

Our Little Cuban Cousin. 

Our Little Hawaiian Cousin. 

Our Little Eskimo Cousin. 

Our Little Philippine Cousin. 

Our Little Porto Rican Cousin. 

Our Little African Cousin. 

Our Little Japanese Cousin. 

Our Little Brown Cousin. 

Our Little Indian Cousin. 

Our Little Russian Cousin. 

By ISAAC HEADLAND TAYLOR 

Our Little Chinese Cousin. 


COSY CORNER SERIES 


It is the intention of the publishers that this series shall 
contain only the very highest and purest literature, — 
stories that shall not only appeal to the children them¬ 
selves, but be appreciated by all those who feel with 
them in their joys and sorrows, — stories that shall be 
most particularly adapted for reading aloud in the 
family circle. 

The numerous illustrations in each book are by well- 
known artists, and each volume has a separate attract¬ 
ive cover design. 

Each, i vol., i6mo, cloth.$0.50 

By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON 

The Little Colonel. 

The scene of this story is laid in Kentucky. Its 
heroine is a small girl, who is known as the Little 
Colonel, on account of her fancied resemblance to an 
old-school Southern gentleman, whose fine estate and 
old family are famous in the region. This old Colonel 
proves to be the grandfather of the child. 

The Giant Scissors. 

This is the story of Joyce and of her adventures in 
France, — the wonderful house with the gate of The 
Giant Scissors, Jules, her little playmate, Sister Denisa, 
the cruel Brossard, and her dear Aunt Kate. Joyce is 
a great friend of the Little Colonel, and in later volumes 
shares with her the delightful experiences of the “ House 
Party ” aad the « Holidays.” 


2 


L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY'S 


By ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON {Continued) 

Two Little Knights of Kentucky, 

Who Were the Little Colonel’s Neighbors. 
In this volume the Little Colonel returns to us like an 
old friend, but with added grace and charm. She is 
not, however, the central figure of the story, that place 
being taken by the “ two little knights.” 

Cicely and Other Stories for Girls. 

The readers of Mrs. Johnston’s charming juveniles 
will be glad to learn of the issue of this volume for 
young people, written in the author’s sympathetic and 
entertaining manner. 

Aunt ’Liza’s Hero and Other Stories. 

A collection of six bright little stories, which will 
appeal to all boys and most girls. 

Big Brother. 

A story of two boys. The devotion and care of 
Steven, himself a small boy, for his baby brother, is the 
theme of the simple tale, the pathos and beauty of which 
has appealed to so many thousands. 

Ole riammy’s Torment. 

“Ole Mammy’s Torment” has been fitly called “a 
classic of Southern life.” It relates the haps and mis¬ 
haps of a small negro lad, and tells how he was led by 
love and kindness to a knowledge of the right. 

The Story of Dago. 

In this story Mrs. Johnston relates the story of Dago, 
a pet monkey, owned jointly by two brothers. Dago 
tells his own story, and the account of his haps and mis¬ 
haps is both interesting and amusing. 

































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